THE STORY OF 

Ammi Bradford Hyde 



BT 

ARTHUR HENRY HARROP, Ph. D., 

Professor of Latin in the University of Denver. 



lb 



CINCINNATI : 
PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR BY 
JENNINGS & GRAHAM. 



TO ALL WHO SEEK INSPIEATION IN 
A LIFE NOBLY LIVED. 



CONTEOTS. 

PAGE 



I. Youth and Education, 11 

II. Career as Teacher: 

1. Cazenovia Seminary, _ _ _ 43 

2. Military Experiences, - - - 58 

3. Life at Allegheny College, - - 66 

4. Labors in the University of Denver, 77 

III. Selections from Diary and Correspondence, 93 

IV. Literary Activities, - - - - 133 
V. Wit and Humor, - - - _ - - 163 

VI. Ammi Bradford Hyde, the Man, - - 177 



LIST OF ILLUSTEATIQNS. 

FACING PAGE 



Ammi Bradford Hyde, at the Age of Eighty-five, 6 

Edward Hyde, First Earl of Clarendon, - - 14 

Birthplace of Ammi Bradford Hyde, - - 26 

Ammi Bradford Hyde, at the Age of Twenty, - 40 

Ammi Bradford Hyde and His Sister, - - 54 

General View Allegheny College, 1875, - - 66 

Allegheny College Scenes of To-day, - - 76 

University Hall, Liberal Arts Department, 

University of Denver, - - - - - 88 

Old Dormitory at Wesleyan University, - - 106 

General View of Grounds and Buildings at Wes- 
leyan University, 126 

Breaking Ground for the $100,000 Science Plant, 150 

The Ilipf School of Theology, - 180 



AMMI BRADFORD HYDE, AT THE AGE OF EIGHTY-FIVE. 



FOREWOED 



''The proper study of mankind is man J' 

— Pope. 

^^The Story of Ammi Bradford Hyde" is 
not intended to be an exhaustive biography. 
The title chosen gives the writer a bit of lee- 
way. It allows him to neglect some details 
and invite the reader to give some rein to 
imagination. At the same time, the title 
presents certain embarrassments. It sug- 
gests some attempt at a readable account 
that shall seek to keep the reader in a state 
of anticipation as the pages of the book are 
turned. 

If it be objected that the book carries 
some matter not specifically connected with 
Ammi Bradford Hyde, the author's excuse 
and defense must be, that, as the story of 
the oak may well include the mention of the 
sunshine and the rain and the soil that con- 
tribute to the tree's successful growth, so 
the story of Ammi Bradford Hyde may ap- 

7 



FOREWORD 



propriately refer to all those circumstances 
which have surrounded him and those people 
with whom he has labored. 

Dr. Hyde is still enjoying vigorous health. 
Only recently he gave striking evidence of his 
youthful spirit and agility by walking from 
his home in University Park down to the 
heart of Denver and back again the same day^ 
a distance of fourteen miles. That night he 
attended a reception^ was bright-eyed, alert, 
and cheery, and the next day was as fresh 
as a June rose. This book, therefore, seeks 
to bestow flowers on the living rather than on 
the dead. 

The University of Denver, 
March 13, 1912. 



A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW 



Hyde^ Ammi Beadfoed^ prof, languages^ 
Univ. of Denver; b. Oxford, Chenango Co., 
N. Y., Mar. 13, 1825 ; s. Asahel J. and Mary 
0. (Hinckley) H. ; prep, ed'n Oxford, N. Y. ; 
grad. Wesleyan Univ., Middletown, Conn., 
1846 (M. A. same; S. T. D., Syracuse Univ.; 
Litt. D., Univ. of Denver) ; m. Utica, N. Y., 
July 20, 1850, Mira Smith (now deceased). 
Was in service U. S. Sanitary Comm'n, en- 
tered M. E. ministry, 1848; has taught in 
several colls. ; Independent in politics ; mem. 
Am. Oriental Soc, Am. Philol. Soc, Na- 
tional Geog. Soc, S. A. E., Phi Beta Kappa, 
Colo. Schoolmasters' Club, Denver Philos. 
Soc. 

Author: Song of Solomon and Ecclesi- 
astes (Whedon's Commentary), 1875; Es- 
says, 1884; Story of Methodism, 1890. 
Cont'b'r to Meth. Rev. 58 yrs., weekly Sun- 
day School Notes to Pittsburgh Christian 
Advocate for 2,000 consecutive weeks, and to 
other jours. 

Address : University Park, Colo. 

— Who ^s Who in America. 
9 



Ammi Bradford Hyde 



I 

YOUTH AND EDUCATION 

Nestlii^g among the Mils of south central 
New Yorkj in the county of Chenango, lies 
the little village of Oxford. Over a century 
old it is, for it was founded in the year 1793 ; 
but while other villages established the same 
year went ahead by leaps and bounds and 
now have all the ear-marks of the metropolis, 
Oxford contentedly plodded on, living the 
unostentatious life, patiently awaiting the 
day when the world should wake up to the 
fact that great men may be born in obscure 
hamlets. 

It was during the first years of the in- 
fant nation that a little band of New Eng- 
landers, among them Elijah Hovey, all of 
them stout of soul, with nerves of steel, 
pushed westward from the Old Bay State to 
escape the distractions of a busy common- 
wealth. Fortune guided them until at last 
they pitched camp amidst beautiful hills cov- 

11 



AMMI BRADFOED HYDE 



ered with magnificent forests of pine and 
hard maple, through which ran, like a thread 
of gleaming silver, the charming and ro- 
mantic Chenango River. Here they deter- 
mined to establish new homes; for, with 
abundance of fish in the stream and game on 
a score of hills, with timber and soil rich in 
promise, they could not but feel that they had 
found a spot to which their hearts might 
fondly cling. 

Their earlies't business was cutting the 
splendid pine trees and sending the timber 
down the Chenango into the Susquehanna 
and on into Chesapeake Bay, and thus to 
the city of Baltimore. Later they worked 
up the forest into potash and black salts. 

These sons of New England brought 
along with them some of the best of the 
colonial traditions, prominent among which 
was a wholesome regard for education; and 
so, after three or four years, in the year 
1797, they built an academy in their young 
village. This institution continued an acad- 
emy till about 1850, when it was shifted into 
a high school, which to-day gives the youth 
of the vicinity a very respectable preparation 
for college. 

12 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION 

To-day, after the lapse of nearly a cen- 
tury and a quarter, Oxford is a village of a 
thousand inhabitants ; and, until the railroad 
invaded the quiet retreat, the silence of the 
forest-covered hills was broken only by rush 
of water or cry of wild animal or shout of 
man; and even now, despite the thunder of 
the iron steed over the steel rails, Oxford 
retains much of virgin simplicity, content to 
lead a happy life devoted to the concerns of 
the dairying business. 

But men are found everywhere. The old 
inhabitants of Oxford point with pardonable 
pride to the fact that their little academy 
sent forth some whom men have delighted 
to honor. They cite you to Horatio Seymour, 
governor of their State during the days of 
the Civil War ; and with no little satisfaction 
they refer to John Tracy, at one time lieu- 
tenant-governor, and to Chester Cole, who 
afterwards moved to Iowa and enjoyed an 
enviable reputation as a lawyer in the city of 
Des Moines and, indeed, occupied for a time 
the office of attorney-general in the Hawkeye 
State. Nor have the village folk forgot an- 
other, whose career has been of less spectac- 
ular sort, to be sure, but who has enshrined 

13 



AMMI BRADFORD HYDE 



himself in the affections of a multitude widely 
scattered; and his name is Ammi Bradford 
Hyde. 

Here, in the village of Oxford, on the 
thirteenth of March, eighteen hundred and 
twenty-five, was born the subject of our 
story. His paternal grandfather, Nathan 
Hyde, was a very energetic man, the strong- 
est man, so people said, in his home county, 
that of New Haven, in the State of Connecti- 
cut. He could pick up a barrel of cider and 
toss it into a wagon, and he could leap over a 
six-rail worm fence without putting his hands 
upon it. He was a soldier in the American 
Army in the War of 1812, was captured, and 
spent some time as prisoner among the 
Chateaugay Indians. He used to tell an 
incident connected with the battle of Platts- 
burg, on Lake Champlain, to the effect that, 
the second sergeant of his company seeing 
the captain and first lieutenant killed by a 
single cannon-ball from the enemy's fleet, 
shouted : ^ ^Hurrah ! One more shot like that 
and I command this company!" 

Ammi Bradford Hyde's maternal grand- 
mother, Hopestill Brewster Hinckley, was 
sixth in direct line from William Brewster, 

14 



EDWARD HYDE, FIRST EARL OF CLARENDON, WHOSE DAUGHTER, 
ANNE HYDE, WAS THE WIFE OF KING JAMES THE SECOND OF 
ENGLAND, AND MOTHER OF QUEEN ANNE AND MARY. 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION 

who came across the Atlantic in the historic 
Mayflower. She was born at Colchester, 
Connecticut, the same year Napoleon Bona- 
parte was born. In many ways she was a 
remarkable woman. At the age of seventy- 
five she conld sing, in excellent fashion, all 
fonr parts — soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. 
And so, because of her skill as a vocalist, it 
came about that she sang merry tunes for a 
party to dance by on the Fourth of July, 
1776, thus celebrating the completion of a 
fine bedspread upon which she had been for 
some time working. Miss Maria Hyde, the 
only surviving child of Ammi Bradford 
Hyde, still has in her possession a good-sized 
piece of this interesting fabric, now one hun- 
dred and thirty-three years old. 

Ammi Bradford Hyde's father, fifth in 
descent from the Earl of Clarendon, went 
from Connecticut to make a new home for 
himself in Oxford, New York,, in the year 
eighteen hundred and seventeen, eight years 
before Ammi was born. The Hyde family, 
it will be observed, was of noble stock; but, 
though of aristocratic lineage, the parents 
of Ammi Bradford Hyde had but little of 
this world's goods. They had, however, what 

15 



AMMI BRADFORD HYDE 



was of infinitely more importance — ^virile 
character and worthy ambitions. These 
priceless gifts they bequeathed in generous 
measure to their illustrious son, Ammi 
Bradford Hyde. 

When the father went to Oxford, he pro- 
ceeded along a certain road by which stood 
a blacksmith shop; and when he passed, at 
the hour of nine on the morning of a certain 
November day, the honest blacksmith was 
observed standing in the doorway. Just fifty 
years later, to the very hour of the very day 
of the very month, he again passed that 
blacksmith shop and saw again, after the 
lapse of a half century, that same blacksmith 
standing in the door of that same blacksmith 
shop. Impressed by the incident, he told 
Ammi about it, and the son never forgot it. 
Such circumstances, though of trivial import 
in themselves, illustrate the alertness of the 
family mentality; and those who have been 
so f ortimate as to have acquaintance with the 
subject of our sketch know full well how that 
mental alertness on the part of Ammi Brad- 
ford Hyde has rendered him ever a fascinat- 
ing companion — a constant surprise to those 
with whom he holds converse. 

16 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION 

Ammi's first school experience was when 
he was between three and fonr years of age. 
In company with a sister he one day visited 
the ungraded school of the neighborhood. 
He always retained vivid recollection of how 
the girls were allowed to go out for fifteen 
minutes' play and how the boys were per- 
mitted to have their out-of-door turn after 
the girls had been called in. It was in the 
dead of winter, and hands and feet became 
chilled. On coming in, the girls pulled off 
their shoes to warm their feet at the fire, 
and, little fellow that he was, Ammi naturally 
copied their example ; but, thinking to outdo 
them, he removed not only shoes, but also 
stockings, and then, invigorated by his exer- 
cise and overflowing with childish spirits, he 
patted his little feet on the hearth, attracting 
general attention. The schoolmaster, a man 
whose Irish blood gave him at once a ruddy 
face and a torrid temper, became irritated 
at the amusement thus afforded by the all- 
but-baby,, and, seizing a stout strap which our 
Ammi himself had presented him previously 
with the remark, Mister, this '11 do to whip 
the boys with," he gave the tiny chap sev- 
eral smart blows, causing the girls to weep 

17 



AMMI BEADFORD HYDE 



hysterically, and creating a scene of confu- 
sion that wonld to-day rouse indignation on 
the part of educators who know better and 
saner ways of handling boys. 

But Ammi faced more serious dangers 
than a schoolmaster ^s flogging. Once while 
still an infant his life was despaired of. In- 
deed, it hung by the slenderest thread. All 
the family thought that the child had passed 
away, and the burial shroud was made ready ; 
but the family physician would not give up. 
He worked away in spite of the incredulous 
attitude of friends, who said that his per- 
sistence indicated that he was in his dotage. 
When he brought the baby around, however, 
he was hailed as a miracle worker and his 
skill was heralded far and wide. 

Again, when a good chunk of a lad, Ammi 
ventured in swimming with some comrades. 
By and by, losing his grip of himself, he 
started to sink, and for a brief moment he 
had that peculiar sensation that one experi- 
ences when on the verge of drowning. At 
this critical juncture he was pulled out by a 
companion. So, twice in early years the life 
that was to bless hundreds and thousands of 
men and women was nearly lost. Truly, 

18 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION 



God's mercies are great and His ways past 
human ken. 

Before Ammi was four years of age he 
could read and conld read well, so that he 
presently read a book. That book was en- 
titled ^^Eomulus." It was some account of 
the reputed founder of the city of Eome. 
Originally the book was in Grerman, and later 
turned by some one into English. It is still 
in the Hyde family, and is an interesting 
curiosity. "Whether the book augured the 
child's future or not, who can tell? Be that 
as it may, it is at any rate true that the little 
boy grew into a man who became saturated 
with the charm of classic literature, Eoman 
as well as Greek. No wonder that he has 
stored up in memory, ready to be summoned 
at a moment's notice, many of the choicest 
sentiments of the greatest classical writers ! 
No wonder that in him classical philosophy 
and literature and art find an intense ad- 
mirer and a generous patron ! 

In the fall of 1909 a conversation with 
the writer caused Dr. Hyde to revert to the 
reading of this little account of Romulus, and 
it occurred to him that it would be of interest 
to his friends to send them as a Christmas 

19 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



greeting a poem connected with tlie circnm- 
stance. Accordingly he wrote the following: 



''A TALE OF ANCIENT ROME, ENTITLED 
ROMULUS." 

1830-1910. 

O, volume timeworn, fragile, sere. 
So is the hand that holds thee now, 

And dim the eyes, that, keen and clear. 
Did o'er thy witching pages bow. 

Now living here, the scenes I find. 

That did my glowing heart entrance, 
Shepherds, fair maidens, champions kind, 
The clash of arms, the festal dance. 

As Tiber from the mountain rills 
Gathers its full majestic flow, 

From simple dwellers of these hills 

Came Rome three thousand years ago. 

Here faintly beamed her early dawn, 

Then sovereign noonday splendors shine. 

Soon, as with purple veiling drawn. 
Her lingering, luminous decline. 

As ashes gray the embers keep 
Night-long in living, primal glow, 

The soul's emotions safely sleep 

To wake from dust years noiseless strew. 
20 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION 



O, volume dear, such kindling rays 

Flush all the panoramic view 
As now with tender, earnest gaze 

I, fourscore later, read anew. 

Long before Ammi was large enough or 
old enough to enter upon his real school 
career, he heard from his grandfather 
Hinckley many a fascinating story of the 
Eevolutionary War. What a privilege it was 
that he enjoyed! The grandfather had been 
an eye-witness of the scenes that he de- 
scribed. 

When the storm of conflict broke loose, 
he was a student at Yale College. Books lost 
their charm in the presence of the more 
thrilling issue ; and, hastening to Cambridge, 
Massachusetts, he entered the American 
Army, commanded by George Washington. 
It is not at all improbable that he was with 
the troops when Washington took command 
of them under the famous Washington elm 
that still stands, weather-beaten and hoary 
with age, at the edge of Cambridge Common. 

The eager youth was consumed with the 
struggle that was on. He was helping make 
history. Through that dreadful eight years ' 
period that followed he was near the great 

21 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



general almost the entire time. He endnred 
the horrors of Valley Forge with him. With 
him he faced the Eedcoats at Monmouth. 
"What a marvelous opportunity to learn about 
^^The Father of his Coimtry!" And so the 
youthful Ammi was often magnificently re- 
galed with the exciting reminiscences made 
relative to our struggle for recognition 
among the nations of the earth. 

Indeed, in a very important sense, Ammi 
Bradford Hyde knows from personal experi- 
ence almost the entire national history of 
America. He carries it in his mind and 
heart, and thus is more fascinating in his 
talk about what has occurred in America 
than most men are likely to be when they 
write about America. He declares that his 
grandfather was so elated when Washington 
was finally elected President, that he jumped 
up and cracked his heels together and ex- 
claimed, ^^Now, by George, the country 's 
safe!" 

As a child, Ammi was full of buoyant 
spirits, a thorough young American. He was 
active and alert, with physical vigor to spare. 
Physical vigor was supplemented by mental 
vigor. Indeed, at the age of six he aston- 

22 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION 

ished parents and friends by the manifesta- 
tion of an iinnsnal matheniatical precocity. 
It so happened that his father was interested 
in sheep, killing and selling large nnmbers 
of them. On one occasion the father was 
contemplating a lengthy column of figures, 
desirous of being absolutely certain of what 
it footed up. Noticing his father's anxiety, 
Ammi, giving a glance at the column, with- 
out being conscious of any steps in his cal- 
culation, told his father and others present 
what the column totaled. Struck with won- 
derment, they added the column very slowly 
and carefully and discovered, to their lively 
surprise, that the boy had stated the sum 
exactly. The story of the occurrence could 
not but spread over the neighborhood, and 
many were eager to see for themselves what 
the lad could do in figures. It followed that 
he was often tested for the entertainment 
of friends and acquaintances. For six 
months, or thereabouts, he fascinated all with 
the lightning-like rapidity of his operations 
in simple addition, subtraction, multiplica- 
tion, and division, and in fractions and de- 
termination of interest; and he never made 
a blunder. But not more strange was his 

23 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



wizard-like control of mathematical proc- 
esses than the suddenness with which he lost 
it. And his later work in mathematics ne- 
cessitated as much struggle of brain and 
travail of soul as are experienced by the boy 
of but mediocre ability. Nor did he ever 
have another such mental revelation^ though 
he became a profound and brilliant scholar^ 
a man of wide and varied knowledge— one 
possessed of philosophic attitude of mind and 
even seer-like vision. 

At the age of seven^ lad though he was, 
he worked out with a farmer. At eight his 
father offered him a silver dollar, a substan- 
tial inducement for a small boy in a poor 
family in those days, if he would learn 
French. So he undertook the matter and 
learned to reach French practically unaided, 
except for some suggestions regarding pro- 
nunciation from one who had some facility 
in French. Presently an eminent physician 
of Oxford went to Paris, bringing with him 
on his return a French waif by the name 
of Joe ; and^ this Joe, albeit unable to read 
or write French, talked French with young 
Hyde and was of material assistance in 
adapting the American boy's tongue to the 

24 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION 



idiosyncrasies of tlie French pronunciation. 
The Hyde family still retains a small United 
States History in French, in the front part 
of which is written: ^^Ammi B. Hyde, from 
his father, A. J. Hyde, Oct. 2, 1835.'' So, 
at the age of ten the lad got his French and 
his American history at the same time ! And 
yet we think that boys of to-day are so mnch 
ahead of boys of seventy-five years ago! 

At nine Ammi had his first formal school- 
ing. This he enjoyed in the academy of 
his native village. It was the first frame 
building erected there, and was the first char- 
tered educational institution west of the 
Hudson Eiver. He began the study of Latin 
the first year in the academy, and when he 
was eleven years old the principal of the 
academy selected him to teach a Latin class. 
In this Latin class was, among others, Mr. 
Herbert Clark, still living in New York at 
a venerable old age. The remuneration for 
teaching the class was tuition for himself, 
his sister, and a brother; and some small 
perquisites. The Latin grammar in the 
hands of our young student was edited 
by Adams, a grammar that is nowadays 
stranger to Latin students. 

25 



AMMI BRADFORD HYDE 



At the age of ten Ammi began the study 
of Greek. The grammar he nsed in this con- 
nection was characterized by him later in life 
as a very poor working tool for a boy setting 
ont to cultivate an acquaintance with the ex- 
alted literature of the Hellenic race. Some 
years later, when an appeal was made for 
books to send to foreign mission j&elds, this 
same Greek grammar (Kingley 's) was sent — 
perhaps without serious regret — to Monrovia 
Academy, in Liberia. What its influence has 
been on the African Negro its donor never 
ventured to say, except that it could hardly 
have been responsible for thickening the veil 
of ignorance which, at the time of its journey 
across the ocean, obscured the vision of the 
people of the Dark Continent. 

At the age of twelve to fourteen Ammi 
once more worked on the farm, but kept at 
his books by night and during any other 
available hours. He has always been an 
early riser. Throughout his entire career he 
has been a tower of strength. A rather 
slender man, five feet nine inches in height, 
weighing a hundred and fifty pounds, he has 
nevertheless been blessed with great endur- 
ance. As a young man a fifty-mile walk per 

26 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION 



day was no unusual thing, and he conld lift 
seven hundred pounds clear of the ground. 
At the age of eighty-seven he moves along 
with head erect and elastic step — a sight to 
shame many a man of thirty-five — and is a 
splendid illustration of Mens sana in sano 
corpore. 

When he was ready to assume the toga 
virilis,^ that is to say, at about fourteen, a 
Presbyterian minister of the town became in- 
terested in the boy and invited him to study 
with him. The invitation was accepted with 
alacrity, and they plunged with zest into 
three languages at once. Thus the ambitious 
lad learned his first Hebrew, Syriac, and 
Chaldaic. The minister had no Syriac gram- 
mar in book form, but had a manuscript ver- 
sion which he had made from lectures he had 
received while in college. Young Hyde made 
a copy of this and so fathomed the initial 
mysteries of that Oriental language. 

At fifteen he was glad to accept an offer 
of position as clerk in a general store. He 
still clung to his studies with commendable 
tenacity. After his term of service was con- 

1 At the age of from fourteen to seventeen Roman boys laid aside the toga 
praetexta (purple bordered garment) for the toga virilis (white garment). 



27 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 

eluded in the istore, he went home and again 
worked on the farm, receiving eight dollars 
per month. From the farm he repaired once 
more to the academy, working for his board. 
On Saturdaj^s he wielded the ax, keeping his 
father supplied with firewood. Thus he 
toiled on, getting at once his mental and his 
physical basis for the work of future years. 
Let no youth despise the necessity of physical 
toil against great odds. The whole story of 
Ammi Bradford Hyde should be an immense 
inspiration to seek sturdiness of body, train- 
ing of brain, and culture of heart. 

And now came a notable crisis in the 
young man's life. He had reached the age 
of eighteen. He had got about all that Ox- 
ford Academy could give him, and the ques- 
tion was. What next? At this point, his 
uncle, Ammi H. Hyde, then resident in 
New Jersey, being deeply interested in his 
nephew, proposed to back him financially for 
a start in .college. And so the young and 
hopeful fellow, clad in a brown homespun 
coat and trousers to match, with a black suit 
for Sundays and special occasions, a modest 
trunk, and fifty dollars in his pocket, set out 
for Wesley an University, at Middletown, 

28 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION 



Connecticut. Never before had he been so 
far from home; and hence the journey down 
the Hudson, through New York City, on Long 
Island Sound, and up the Connecticut Eiver, 
was a ceaseless entertainment to him. The 
depth of the impression on the youthful 
mind is attested by the fact that, up to the 
age of eighty, he made frequent pilgrimages 
back to this, his youthful Mecca, and almost 
invariably went by boat from New York to 
Middletown. In this fashion he had gone 
originally, and thus his fancy suggested that 
he should now and again return to pay his 
tribute of gratitude to his alma mater. 

When he presented himself for entrance 
examination, he was asked by the Greek 
professor what Greek authors he had studied 
and what he knew about them. His answer 
was characteristic: ^^I pretend to know 
Greek. Examine me as you like. I will un- 
dertake to do something with any Greek book 
you place in my hands ! ' ' 

The young student was six years older 
than the institution to which he submitted 
himself for testing. Wesleyan University 
was founded six years after Ammi Bradford 
Hyde was born; that is to say, in the year 

29 



AMMI BEADFORD HYDE 



1831, while ^^Old Hickory'' Jackson was 
President of tlie United States. 

The daySj too, when young Hyde entered 
Wesleyan were extremely interesting. 
Hardly had he been a year in college when 
the world was startled by the invention of 
the magnetic telegraph, and about the time 
of his graduation the Mexican War broke 
out. Those were exciting times; and in the 
midst of storm and stress, when some of 
the most herculean political giants America 
ever gave birth to were occupying the center 
of the stage, our young friend was industri- 
ously preparing himself for a life of useful- 
ness. 

Wesleyan was at that time a small insti- 
tution, with a handful of teachers and only 
about a hundred and twenty students. She 
had but two buildings, and little or no en- 
dowment. The salaries of president and pro- 
fessors was exceedingly modest. The presi- 
dent got probably not more than two thou- 
sand, and the professors not over a thousand 
or twelve hundred. All this is gratifyingly 
different to-day. Full professors receive 
from twenty-five hundred to thirty-five hun- 
dred, and Wesleyan is strongly equipped 

30 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION 



with buildings, apparatus, and endowment. 
Her Faculty to-day is noted for its scholar- 
sliip and capacity and for researcli, and from 
lier halls have gone some of the most influ- 
ential of America's citizens. 

At the head of the college when Ammi 
Bradford Hyde entered it as a student was 
President Olin. He was in the prime of life 
and a man of most unusual physique. He 
stood six feet three and was splendidly pro- 
portioned. In a pile of hats his was of size 
sufficient to discount the rest in pitiable man- 
ner. He was a speaker of sweep and swing, 
with gestures not numerous, but rugged and 
impressive; and his oratorical efforts were 
somewhat Niagarean in their ponderous on- 
rushings. Olin did no teaching, but was al- 
ways busily engaged seeking money and 
broadening the circle of the school's sup- 
porters. His home was often opened to the 
students; and Mrs. Olin was a decided help 
in cultivating the acquaintance of the stu- 
dents. She always remembered them, and 
never failed to greet them when she met 
them on the street. She had considerable 
means, and so the financial pressure upon 
the college did not seriously interfere with 

31 



AMMI BRADFOED HYDE 



the private concerns and comfort of the Olin 
family. The work of President Olin was of 
far-reaching character, and he is to-day re- 
garded as worthy of sincere veneration by all 
Wesleyan's children. 

Besides Olin, there was Smith, who taught 
mathematics and astronomy; Johnson, who 
held forth in the chemical laboratory; Lane, 
who delighted in Greek roots; Holdich, who 
revelled in logic; and Bagnall, who was a 
devotee of Latin. But, though few in num- 
bers, both Faculty and students were alive. 
The daily program would have won the ad- 
miration of any present-day champion of the 
strenuous life. At six A. M. the students 
went to prayers. Even to-day they go at 
eight at Old Wesleyan! At six-fifteen they 
had their first recitation — an hour early 
enough, surely, at the season of the winter 
solstice ! After the first recitation they par- 
took of breakfast. At nine the first study 
bell rang. From nine till eleven they were 
in their rooms. At eleven they had their 
second recitation. At twelve they lunched. 
At two they were supposed to begin their 
studying again and so continue till four, 
when their third daily recitation occurred. 

32 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION 



At five they had prayers. Thus they had 
devotions just before the first recitation and 
immediately following the last recitation. 
Verily, New England Puritanism was not en- 
tirely dead and gone in those years ! At six 
they had supper. At seven the study bell 
once more rang out its warning, and at nine 
the students were expected to retire for the 
night. 

The boys boarded in a club, which was 
managed by a gentleman who was somewhat 
particular as to the manners the boys ex- 
hibited when at the table. On one occasion 
he felt called upon to visit the dormitory 
where Hyde roomed, in order to give a par- 
ticularly active chap a private lesson in table 
etiquette. While the conference was in 
progress, Hyde stepped to the door of his 
room and saw two young collegians, A. G. 
Brigham and J. W. Beach, later president 
of Wesleyan, creeping up stealthily with a 
stick and a piece of rope, with which they 
secured the door of the room where the 
boarding-house keeper was laboring with the 
young gentleman of free and easy dining- 
room manners, leaving the two imprisoned. 
So the young fellows of the forties in Wes- 
2 33 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



leyan University were dominated, as their 
lively successors to-day in a host of colleges, 
by a spirit of mischief which is just about as 
likely to run riot in the brain of the future 
bishop as in the brain of the future humorist. 

Ammi Bradford Hyde was fortunate in 
his college friendships — those early friend- 
ships that stamp themselves so indelibly on 
a man's character. He was an intimate as- 
sociate of that princely man, splendid Chris- 
tian, and noted churchman, Edward Gayer 
Andrews, but recently passed across the 
border line between time and eternity. He 
had intimate acquaintance, too, with B. T. 
Eoberts, founder of the Free Methodists and 
later a bishop in that Church, and with many 
others whose brain was capacious enough 
to direct a nation and whose soul was great 
enough to undertake the emancipation of the 
race. Mention may fittingly be made of 
Judge George Eeynolds, of Brooklyn, who 
not long since gave Wesleyan fifty thousand 
dollars; Fales H. Newhall, long-time pro- 
fessor in "Wesleyan; Orange Judd, who later 
built Orange Judd Scientific Hall at Wes- 
leyan; Dr. Joseph E. King, educator and 
financier, founder and for over fifty years 

34 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION 

principal of Fort Edward Institute, near 
Lake Champlainj and for a quarter of a cen- 
tury a member of the Board of Trustees of 
Wesleyan ; J ohn M. VanVleck, now emeritus 
professor of mathematics at Wesleyan; and 
Gilbert Haven, who became a bishop in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. On the last 
named, the following tribute, by Washington 
Gladden, one of the most prominent of Con- 
gregational clergymen in America, in his 
autobiographical volume entitled ^^Recollec- 
tions" is a most pertinent comment. Speak- 
ing of the prominent men he has met, Dr. 
Gladden says: ^^A fresh and pregnant per- 
sonality, who often enkindled our spirits by 
his presence, was the Rev. Gilbert Haven, 
afterwards bishop of the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church, a man with whom it was delight- 
ful to disagree, and who had the happy 
faculty of stating with perspicuity the things 
which 5^ou knew you did not wish to believe. 
To few men do I owe a larger debt than to 
some who have put clearly before my mind 
the things which I knew to be untrue. It 
would be unfair to ^Gil' Haven, as we then 
familiarly named him, to leave the matter 
here. I suppose that I agreed with him in 

35 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



ten matters where I disagreed in one; but 
there were various theological questions on 
which our differences were sharp, and his 
delightfully incisive and perfectly good- 
natured way of defining those differences 
was extremely serviceable." 

Such were Ammi Bradford Hyde's choice 
companions in Wesleyan. With some of 
them he was associated in the Eclectic Fra- 
ternity, grown famous for the stalwart men 
it has produced. 

Going through college was not financially 
easy. Here, as in Oxford Academy, he 
needed to use vacation periods to store up 
a humble sum which would permit further 
study. Hence it transpired that, during the 
long winter recess, which then ran through 
December and January and even into Feb- 
ruary, he taught school in Connecticut in the 
vicinity where an uncle lived. It was an un- 
graded country school, and he had to teach 
everything from the alphabet to Latin and 
French and Algebra. The pedagogic tiro 
even aided a certain young man to prepare 
for entrance into Yale College. He received 
sixteen dollars per month and '^boarded 
'round;'' and, speaking of this feature of his 

36 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION 

experience J he facetiously remarked that ap- 
parently the poorer the people the longer 
they wished him to stay. At one time he so- 
journed in a honse which was shared by two 
families. The two used a common fire. Con- 
sequently, for a season our young school- 
master boarded with one family whose table 
was spread on one side of the fire, presently 
changing to the table of the other family 
that refreshed the physical man at a table 
located on the other side of the fire. And 
so he had some experiences of a communistic 
or socialistic sort that have an echo here and 
there at the beginning of the twentietb cen- 
tury. 

In 1846 he was graduated by Wesleyan 
in a class numbering thirty-six, the larg- 
est class up to that time sent out by the 
institution. He was one of seven to win 
honors and was therefore elected to mem- 
bership in Phi Beta Kappa. The Commence- 
ment occasion was a noteworthy event in 
Wesleyan history. No less distinguished 
personage than Ealph Waldo Emerson was 
present to address the class. His speech 
was of far-reaching import and philosophical 
in character, duly impressing the young 

37 



AMMI BRADFORD HYDE 



graduates^ some of whom doubtless won- 
dered about the significance of some of Em- 
erson's observations as did the person who 
boldly asked the '^Sage of Concord" what 
he intended by a certain allusion, to which 
query Emerson replied : ' ' When • I made 
that remark, only two persons knew its mean- 
ing — God and myself. I have forgotten, and 
God won't tell!'' 

The music for the graduating exercises 
was furnished by a fine band brought from 
Boston. Its leader was Edward Kendall, a 
famous bugler. Kendall had previously been 
in England, and, a conversation occurring 
with a bugler who was the director of the 
queen's band, the latter remarked about a 
piece difficult of execution on the bugle, ^^I 
never could play that piece through. ' ' There- 
upon, Kendall asked the musician for his 
bugle and himself played the selection with 
elegant effect. So interested in the circum- 
stance was Queen Victoria, that she pre- 
. sented Kendall a solid silver bugle which he 
had with him at the Wesleyan Commence- 
ment of 1846. 

While at college, Hyde was surprised to 
be presented with license to preach. This 

38 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION 



came unsolicited; nay, rather, it came en- 
tirely unanticipated. The responsible party 
was the Methodist Episcopal Church of 
Middletown, the seat of Wesleyan. The 
young man was temporarily nonplussed; but, 
concluding that the thought of others about 
him was perhaps a hint with reference to his 
possibilities and his duty, he bravely ac- 
cepted the situation and not long afterward 
made his initial attempt at preaching in a 
country schoolhouse some two miles south of 
the college town. From that day on he ser- 
monized effectively, edifying literally hun- 
dreds and thousands whose rare privilege it 
has been to hear him. 

The Hydes were not Methodists, but Epis- 
copalians by tradition. They were brought 
up in the faith of the Church of England; 
and their first American representative, after 
building an Episcopal church at his home in 
Oxford, Connecticut, brought from England 
an Episcopalian rector to serve the parish. 
In the burial ground near this church rest 
the ashes of this first American Hyde and 
three descendants who held the estate after 
him. 

Early in Ammi's life there came to the 
39 



AMMI BRADFORD HYDE 

New York home of Ms brancli of the Hyde 
family a young and struggling Methodist 
preacher, by name George Peck, who after- 
ward became editor of the New York Chris- 
tian Advocate^ and had the unusual distinc- 
tion of being twelve times member of the 
General Conference of his Church. Mrs. 
Hyde went to hear young Peck preach ; and, 
inasmuch as he was penniless and had no 
place to go for food and shelter, she gra- 
ciously invited him to the Hyde home. The 
result was that the mother and the sister of 
Ammi Bradford Hyde were converted and 
joined the Methodist Church. -The father, 
too, coming under conviction and later ex- 
periencing conscious pardon of sin, sought 
his rector and told him his state of mind and 
soul, whereupon the rector, greatly puzzled, 
said: ^^I never had such an experience in 
all my life. If you feel that way, you had 
better withdraw from the Episcopal Church 
and join the Methodists.'' This he did; and 
so it came about that Ammi Bradford Hyde 
shifted his religious allegiance and became a 
Methodist even in his boyhood, loving the 
sect for its heroic struggles and friendship 
for the masses, and serving it with all his 

40 



AMMI BRADFORD HYDE, AT THE AGE OF TWENTY. 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION 

powers of body and mind and sonl. But he 
could not wholly escape from the touch that 
the Episcopal Church had put upon his child 
life. Never has he forgot the lofty language 
of the Episcopal ritual ; and his religious ut- 
terances, particularly his prayers, are re- 
plete with the beautiful phraseology for 
which the Episcopal prayer-book is justly 
noted. But, safe to say, in Ammi Bradford 
Hyde charm of religious expression is not- 
ably reinforced by sincerity of religious feel- 
ing and experience. The words on his lips 
are a true index of the attitude of his soul; 
and, to his way of thinking, no grace of utter- 
ance can be out of harmony with devout wor- 
ship of the Great Father. 

Even during the earlier part of his teach- 
ing career, while engaged at Cazenovia Sem- 
inary, he was active as a preacher, quite 
often filling various pulpits, and especially 
that of the First Methodist Episcopal Church 
in Syracuse, eighteen miles away. Indeed, 
some friends strongly urged that he cease 
teaching and devote his time exclusively to 
the ministry; and, had he done so, he would 
doubtless have had as pronounced success in 
the pulpit as he has had in the chair of the 

41 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



professor. However, lie could not decide to 
abandon tlie active work of teaching; and so 
througliont his illnstrions life lie has taught 
and preached in the class room and preached 
and taught in the pulpit, being at once a 
scholarly preacher and a pious scholar. 




BREWSTER 
OF surroLK & es-szx. 



THE BREWSTER COAT OF ARMS. 



n 



CAEEER AS TEACHER 

1. Cazeitovia Semii^aey. 

Even before Hyde's graduation, Dr. Henry 
Bannister, of Cazenovia Seminary, in Central 
New York, appeared at Middletown looking 
for a teacher of languages for Cazenovia. 
Being advised to try Ammi Bradford Hyde, 
lie presented the matter to the prospective 
graduate, who gladly agreed to go to Caze- 
novia the following year. 

At Cazenovia he served under two dif- 
ferent principals, Henry Bannister and Ed- 
ward G. Andrews. Some time after our 
young teacher began his work, Dr. Bannister 
resigned to accept a place as professor of 
Greek in Northwestern University, at Evans- 
ton, Illinois. His place as principal was 
taken by Andrews, who had been a teacher in 
the seminary for several years. He was of 
good stock. The family of his mother be- 
longed to the religious sect of the Friends. 
His father was a pious and liberal-hearted 

43 



AMMI BRADFOED HYDE 

man. Edward was one of a large family, 
there being five brotliers and as many sisters. 
He prepared for college at Cazenovia, and 
was gradnated by Wesleyan in 1847. He 
then began preaching in New York State in 
humble places. In 1854 he was appointed a 
teacher in Cazenovia, and in 1856 succeeded 
to the principalship. In 1864 he was a mem- 
ber of the General Conference of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, and was at that time 
transferred to the New York East Confer- 
ence. Here his capabilities rapidly showed 
themselves. He had a brilliant career, which 
culminated in his service as bishop of his 
Church. For over thirty years he was the 
only man elected from the pastorate to the 
episcopacy. He was a splendid all-round 
man, conspicuous for his genial temper and 
his sound judgment. 

At Cazenovia, Ammi Bradford Hyde 
taught quite a variety of languages— Greek, 
Latin, German, and French. Those were 
days when teachers must have breadth of 
vision and capacity for a goodly number of 
hours of work per day. The subject of our 
story taught from eight o'clock to twelve 
and from one to four, had charge of one of 

44 



CAREER AS TEACHER 

the dormitories, sometimes played police- 
man the major part of the night, and for his 
varied and vigorous services received the 
first year the magnificent sum of three him- 
dred and fifty dollars ! Indeed, he tanght for 
fifteen years at Cazenovia before his salary 
ran np to six hundred. This seems a low 
fignre, as, to be snre, it was; bnt the pur- 
chasing power of money was considerably 
greater then than now. He secured board, 
room, fuel, and washing for a dollar and a 
quarter a week! At that time an excellent 
beefsteak cost but eight cents a pound. It 
will therefore be seen that the salary was the 
equivalent of two or three times that amount 
to-day. 

Before going farther with the experi- 
ences at Cazeno\da, it will be of interest to 
note that, after graduating at Wesleyan, 
Professor Hyde was for many years a mem- 
ber of the Examining Committee which at 
Commencement time appeared in the classes 
at Wesleyan and proceeded to discover for 
themselves what the young students had been 
doing. The examiners quizzed, and quizzed 
freely; and our youthful teacher thus came 
into early contact with three excellent and 

45 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



aspiring students — Foss^ Ninde, and Warren 
— all of whom, by reason of their exceptional 
ability and exalted Christian character, were 
later songht by the Methodist Episcopal 
Church for the bishopric. Of one of them, 
Henry White Warren, he has been for more 
than twenty-five years a most intimate friend 
and neighbor in University Park, Colorado, 
and in whose honor he a few years ago com- 
posed a fine poem on the occasion of the 
bishop's birthday. 

But, though more generally known than 
their examiner of college days, none of the 
three was more devout and none more versa- 
tile of mind or unique in personality; and 
it may be doubted if any one of them ever 
more strongly gripped the affections of his 
fellow-man. Unquestionably not one of them 
was superior to Ammi Bradford Hyde in 
princely gifts of character and thorough af- 
fability of spirit. Young and old, rich and 
poor, learned and ignorant, the honored and 
the despised, the sinner and the saint, — all 
men everywhere and always found in him a 
sympathetic friend and a true advocate ; and 
his love for men won love for him. 

But, to enter into some detail regarding 
46 



CAREER AS TEACHER 



his lengthy experience at Cazenovia Sem- 
inary: Our yonng professor was versatile 
enough. He even organized a glee club, the 
members paying a fee of twenty-five cents. 
He played the bass viol in chapel service, 
and once in a while amused himself at the 
organ. This man of linguistic bent would 
not allow himself to become narrow in his 
interests or limited in his activities. He 
wished to touch human life in a variety of 
ways; and so he laid a broad foundation by 
learning something of everything. Thus he 
was prepared later to endeavor to know 
everything of something, and so it came 
about that, in the highest and sanest sense, 
Ammi Bradford Hyde has been to a very 
respectable degree a specialist. He so mas- 
tered his greatest of all hobbies, Greek lan- 
guage and literature, that he can hardly be 
approached on any matter, great or small, 
connected with that fertile field of study, of 
which he is entirely ignorant. His mind is 
a perfect thesaurus of information; and, 
once he grasps a fact, he is entirely capable 
of setting that fact forth in language as lucid 
as a beam of pure sunlight. 

There were in Cazenovia some influential 

47 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



families of culture, and Professor Hyde was 
fortunate enough to be introduced into tlieir 
select circle soon after he took up his duties 
in the seminary. Not long after going to 
Gazenovia, he met a young lady by the name 
of Miss Mira Smith. Her home was in 
Utica, and she was of Scotch descent. She 
was a student in the young teacher's classes, 
and he soon grew interested to a greater ex- 
tent than a teacher is really obliged to be 
in the welfare of a young lady pupil. The 
young lady's friends slyly teased her, but 
this simply added fuel to the fire and made it 
burn more brightly; and, any way, she was 
Scotch and not to be easily diverted from 
her purpose. It was the old, old story. 
Teasing friends fought a losing battle, and 
Ammi Bradford Hyde and Mira Smith de- 
termined to face life's struggles together. 
For fifty years they lived in blessed com- 
panionship, ^^each for the other, both for 
God." 

At Cazenovia, Professor Hyde had in his 
classes a number of students the fame of 
some of whom later girded the globe. Eefer- 
ence to a few of them may interest the 
reader. 

48 



CAEEER AS TEACHER 

There were many Indians in New York 
State during Professor Hyde's younger days, 
but they were quite adapted to the ways of 
civilization. In Cazenovia onr friend had the 
unique privilege of attempting to instruct 
one of the tribe of the Onondagas, Thomas 
Le Fort by name. He used to despair with 
reference to the progress he made with his 
copper-colored pupil, but later years showed 
that his labors were after all not in vain. 
This Le Fort had a touch of French blood in 
him, but had the looks and ways of the true 
red man. His father was chief of his tribe, 
and after his death Thomas's elder brother 
succeeded his father as chief, and when he 
passed off the scene of action, Thomas suc- 
ceeded him. He embraced the Christian 
faith and became a sort of missionary among 
his own people. He is still living at Onon- 
daga Castle, New York, and long carried on 
correspondence with his pale-face teacher, 
who came to think of him as one of his most 
interesting pupils. 

There was William N. Clark, now pro- 
fessor in Colgate University, Central New 
York, said by some to be the most eminent 
living theologian of the Baptist Church in 

49 



AMMI BEADFORD HYDE 

America. Another pupil, Riley T. Taylor, 
afterwards was the founder and for fifty 
years principal of what is now Beaver Col- 
lege, in the southwestern part of Pennsyl- 
vania. Another was Charles Dudley War- 
ner, at one time editor of Harper^ s Magazine. 
Still another was Charles Stebbins Fair- 
child, who was President Cleveland's Secre- 
tary of the Treasury. After his distin- 
guished services in the Cabinet, he retired 
to private life, making his home in Caze- 
novia; and in the year 1906, upon the occa- 
sion of a visit by Dr. Hyde to Cazenovia, Mr. 
Fairchild tendered him a magnificent recep- 
tion. 

Another interesting youth came to Caze- 
novia from his father's farm, ten miles away. 
His independent and resolute nature chafed 
at authority. In fact, he so irritated his 
teachers that there was serious disposition 
to dismiss him; but our professor interceded 
for him with vigor and skill, and he was 
allowed to remain. He ultimately graduated, 
and went off to the then Far West. In Cali- 
fornia he grew interested in the handling of 
meats. Then he returned eastward to Chi- 
cago and became the father of the mighty 

50 



CAREER AS TEACHER 



meat industry which has assisted in making 
Chicago commercially famous. Such was 
Philip D. Armour, a man who at his death 
was worth fifty million dollars. A half cen- 
tury after Armour's school days at Caze- 
novia, Dr. Hyde, then professor of Greek in 
the University of Denver, on one of his trips 
East, stopped in Chicago to see his pupil of 
other years, now grown wealthy and power- 
ful in the business world. Mr. Armour cor- 
dially received him and was much gratified 
to have a visit from his old teacher. He 
showed him marked courtesy, sending an ex- 
pert with him to pilot him through the 
monster plant over which he presided, and 
then had Dr. Hyde go to one of the finest 
hotels, where he was magnificently cared for 
at Mr. Armour's expense. Indeed, Mr. Ar- 
mour was quite minded to endow Dr. Hyde's 
chair of Greek in the University of Denver; 
but at that time he was so pledged to the 
needs of Armour Institute that he did not act 
at once for his beloved teacher, and he finally 
passed away without carrying to completion 
his half -formulated plan. 

Known the length and breadth of the land 
was another pupil, Joseph H. Hawley, gen- 

51 



AMMI BRADFORD HYDE 

oral of the Union army in the Civil War, 

governor of Connecticut, and for thirty years 
United States senator from that State. Be- 
fore the war, Hawley's father lived in North 
Carolina and was an ardent defender of 
slavery; but, suffering a shift of opinion, he 
moved to the State of New York, where he 
was outspoken in his opposition to slavery; 
and hence it was by no means surprising that 
the son gave his efforts toward freeing the 
Negro. 

Another pupil was a fine-looking fellow, 
something of an Apollo in fact, who made a 
striking appearance as he strode along the 
street arrayed in his best attire ; but in those 
days he was not particularly noted for his 
intellectual keenness, and was perhaps re- 
garded as of only average intelligence. But 
he was fortunate in his marriage, and his es- 
timable wife was largely responsible for his 
mental awakening. By and by the couple 
went to New Orleans, where the husband be- 
came immensely popular by reason of his en- 
gaging personality; and subsequently he was 
successfully supported in the Methodist 
General Conference as a candidate for the 
bishopric. He came to be regarded as a 

52 



CAREER AS TEACHER 



powerful man, and his name and work are 
to-day justly esteemed. And this was Bishop 
John P. Newman. So, leaders in Chnrch and 
State have got some of their primal inspira- 
tion from the subject of onr story. 

Cazenovia Lake is an attractive sheet of 
water some four miles long and a mile and 
a half wide. It is fed by springs and is a 
favorite resort in summer for boating and in 
winter for skating. One day Dr. Bannister, 
the principal of the seminary, accompanied 
by Edward G, Andrews, then a teacher in the 
seminary, later Bishop Andrews, went out on 
the lake in a boat to fish. Tiring of their 
sport, they started homeward. They tugged 
and tugged away, blistering their hands and 
exhausting themselves, and marveling at 
their snail-like progress. After a time, dis- 
couraged, they cast their eyes toward the 
shore of the lake, where they saw a Mr. Fair- 
child, father of the later Secretary of the 
Treasury, standing and watching them, a 
grim smile upon his countenance. Calling to 
him, they complained of their difficulty in 
sending their skiff along and asked whether 
he could discover the hindering cause. Burst- 
ing into a hearty laugh, he remarked, ^^I 

53 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



think you 'd better weigh anchor ! ' ' There- 
upon they looked, and lo ! they had been drag- 
ging the anchor for a goodly distance as they 
perspired and possibly thought imprecations 
which the character of their positions as edu- 
cators would hardly permit them to utter 
aloud. 

Another incident involving Edward G. 
Andrews : After some time he succeeded to 
the principalship of the seminary. One night 
in November, a night cold and raw and gusty, 
he was escorting a lady along the lake shore 
in the neighborhood of the village of Skane- 
ateles. Ever and anon a vicious blast of 
wind swooped down upon them, and all of a 
sudden the young man's hat was dashed from 
his head and swept out into the inky black- 
ness of the lake. It was never recovered; 
and its luckless owner had to return bare- 
headed to the seminary. Then it was that 
the muse prompted Professor Hyde to per- 
petrate the following on his superior: 

'^O Skaneateles, Skaneateles, 
How fair thou art upon the atlas! 
Must I return forlorn and hatless 

Among my scholars? 
I can not make good my loss at less 

Than seven dollars." 




AMMI BRADFORD HYDE AXD HIS SISTER, MRS. MARIA HYDE 
HIBBARD, NOW NINETY-FOUR YEARS OLD. 
This picture was taken at Clifton Springs, New York, in 1908. 



CAEEER AS TEACHEE 

It was at the home of Mr. Fairchild that 
Professor Hyde once attended a soiree, or 
evening party, after having spent the pre- 
ceding night patrolling the seminary grounds 
to maintain the proper nocturnal quiet there. 
Being exceedingly drowsy, he suddenly fell 
asleep as Miss Fairchild was talking to him. 
All at once he roused himself with a start 
and said briskly: ^^Very well, that will do. 
Now the next!" The good professor had 
gone off, class-room fashion! For a moment 
the lady was amazed, though she soon 
grasped the situation, and the merry laugh 
that followed hardly required an apology. 

Our friend recalls with delight a visit 
made to Cazenovia by the amiable poet, 
Oliver Wendell Holmes, for the purpose of 
delivering a lecture. Holmes was a small 
man with light hair and boyish countenance. 
He spoke on the theme, ^'Lectures and Lec- 
turers." While there was some attempt at 
a philosophical treatment of the subject, 
Holmes's remarks were constantly punctu- 
ated with humorous observations ; as, for ex- 
ample, he declared that there were various 
types of hearers — the hearer of analytic 
mind, the hearer who sought entertainment, 

55 



AMMI BRADFORD HYDE 



and the hearer ^^who went out;" and his 
theory about the last kind of hearer was that 
he got saturated and couldn't stand any 
more. As for lecturers, Holmes asserted that 
it didn't require any special effort to secure 
an audience once. He maintained that a man 
might get a hearing once by merely announc- 
ing that he had jumped over Niagara Falls; 
but that such announcement would not secure 
for him so large an audience the second time. 

After Holmes had closed his deliciously 
entertaining and instructive discourse, he 
was given a reception and proved himself 
refreshingly informal. The hostess so ar- 
ranged it that Professor Hyde was at the 
humorist's elbow the greater part of the time 
and conceived a deep admiration for the 
benevolent disposition of the noted guest. 

Thus the years at Cazenovia were suffi- 
ciently relieved by incident to make them 
refreshing, though they could not be other 
than arduous. 

A visit to Cazenovia in 1905 prompted 
Doctor Hyde to write the following poem: 



56 



CAEEER AS TEACHER 



CAZENOVIA, 1846-1905. 

The same fair village yet! I know it, sure! 

Where threescore years agone I set my feet. 
The wavy outline, gently carved contour. 

White homes and shaded lawns that marge 
the street. 

The lake's calm mirror brightens in the sun; 

The outlet prattles to the morning's ear; 
The birds sing free; the summer blooms are on; 

The breath of June, the silvery showers, are 
here. 

Home of my heart ! While at each step I greet 
Fair forms, the men and women of to-day; 

Voices long hushed, hands unseen, rise to greet 
The pilgrim of the hour from far away. 

Here, lingering yet, affections freshly live; 
Sweet friends! Your love deifies the wasting 
years. 

A smile to all your flushing smiles I give, 

A rainbow bending o'er my struggling tears! 

School, village, guarded by the low green hills 
(Tent-circling camels! up at no driver's call) 

For aye abiding be the glow that fills 

With wide, full light to-day your Festival! 



57 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



2. MiLiTAEY Experiences. 

The demands of chronological order 
would suggest that the narrative of the 
events of the career as teacher be broken in 
upon, while a hasty glimpse is given to the 
war experiences of our subject; for they oc- 
curred between the date of his departure 
from Cazenovia and his assumption of duties 
in Allegheny College. 

^ the summer of 1864 the war spirit was 
ablaze the country over. The North was 
bending all its energies, as never before, to 
bring the desperate struggle to a close. 
Everywhere the draft was in evidence; and 
men who, under less pressing contingencies, 
would have been refused as soldiers in the 
Union army were now sought out. Thus it 
chanced that Professor Hyde, though well 
along toward middle life, older than the great 
majority of men in the service, presented 
himself at the recruiting station ; but the ex- 
amining surgeon, after due consideration, re- 
fused to approve him as a private soldier, 
because he questioned the applicant's ability 
to endure the multiplied rigors to which the 
private must inevitably submit. Eefused en- 

58 



CAREER AS TEACHER 



listment in the ranks, he thought to be of 
some positive use to his country in another 
way. He therefore became connected with 
the United States Sanitary Commission, 
which endeavored to contribute to the com- 
fort of soldiers on the battlefield and in the 
hospital. Members of the Commission wrote 
to friends of wounded and dying soldiers, 
and in general performed the work which in 
the Spanish- American War was in the hands 
of the Red Cross Society. 

Professor Hyde was sent first of all to 
Washington City to await orders. Some 
slight interval elapsing before orders were 
issued to him, he eagerly seized this, his first 
chance, to get acquainted with the national 
capital. He had glimpses of the leading 
statesmen and military celebrities, and 
learned something of doings at the White 
House, though he saw but little of President 
Lincoln. Subsequently, however, he did see 
Mr. Lincoln, and the most immediate impres- 
sion he got of him was that he did not look 
like any of the pictures of him that were ever 
put before the world. 

After a time he was ordered to the front, 
that is, into the Union Army which was op- 

59 



AMMI BRADFOED HYDE 

erating in the vicinity of Richinond and 
Petersburg. There, with the gigantic war 
drama before his eyes, he studied military 
matters and human nature, and did his best 
to compass the situation as the commander 
himself might have done. He was often at 
the headquarters of General Grant and was 
profoundly impressed with the wonderful 
control that Grant had of himself and of the 
situation. Sometimes he saw him riding at 
breakneck speed with two or three orderlies 
flying along in the rear in frantic endeavor 
to keep near their chief. Sometimes he saw 
him writing orders at midnight in his tent, 
all his resources of mind and powers of body 
bent to the herculean task. Sometimes he 
saw "the silent man'' hovering sympathet- 
ically over the cot of a djdng soldier, thus 
testifying to his tender spirit and his ready 
compassion. Who can with appropriate viv- 
idness portray the kaleidoscopic scenes of 
our friend's daily experiences? He looked 
upon men of every race. All nations under 
the sun were represented in the Federal 
army and all were striving for the preserva- 
tion of the Union and the emancipation of 
the Negro. He saw colored regiments and 

60 



CAEEER AS TEACHER 

viewed with undisguised admiration those 
stalwart specimens of physical strength now 
arrayed against their masters of a year or 
two before. In his later years he recalled a 
battery manned by Negroes. This battery 
was at one time shifted to a position whence 
it had a good view of the town clock in the 
city of Petersburg, then in possession of the 
Confederates. As soon as the colored artil- 
lerymen sighted that town clock, they opened 
fire and sent a cannon-ball right through the 
face of the innocent clock and it was forever 
silenced. Jolly and brave were these Negro 
troops; but, when they were wounded, they 
quickly yielded to despair, and their common 
wail was, ^^I 'se got my call!" Thus they 
exhibited naturally enough the overwhelm- 
ing despair that long years of servitude had 
instilled into their souls. And no wonder! 
How could they be optimistic, born of those 
who never owned a dollar's worth of this 
world's goods, never were permitted to learn 
anything of books, and toiled on year after 
year — never a holiday — with the dreadful 
cat-o '-nine-tails and bloodthirsty bulldogs in 
constant proximity? The marvel of marvels 
is that even one Booker T. Washington 

61 



AMMI BRADFOED HYDE 



could have sprung up in the half century that 
has elapsed since the frightful conflict that 
ended the dire curse of human slavery. 

The Indian troops, too, were an inter- 
esting contingent of the Northern army. 
Among them was a Chippewa chief from the 
State of Wisconsin, a magnificent physical 
specimen, whom Professor Hyde greatly fan- 
cied. He was a type of that incisive mind 
that to-day looms large in the best of the 
remnants of the Red Race. 

In the vicinity of Richmond there were 
a hundred and fifty thousand Federal sol- 
diers. The fighting was often appalling. It 
scarcely ceased. The wearied soldier was 
soothed to his uneasy slumber by the monot- 
onous boom of heavy artillery, and perchance 
rudely awakened by the sharp rattle of mus- 
ketry in his very ears. Members of the 
Sanitary Commission, therefore, never lacked 
for something to do. From early morning 
till late at night they moved over the field 
of carnage, giving thirsty soldiers refresh- 
ing draughts of coffee and water, now and 
again pausing to hear the piteous plaint of 
the dying and pledging them that they would 

62 



CAREER AS TEACHER 



write their last request to their dear ones at 
home. 

Engaged in this work of mercy were a 
few women, not as many as now. They had 
canght the idea from the labors of that qneen 
of women, Florence Nightingale, who a few 
years previously had been a ministering 
angel in the Crimean War; and their loving 
attentions were often all but the equivalent 
of those of mother and sister and sweetheart. 

All sorts of eatables were sent down from 
the North for use in the hospitals. From 
Pennsylvania at one time went a hogshead of 
delicious pickled potatoes. Again, the Ger- 
mans of that State sent some of their famous 
sauerkraut. Delicacies innumerable bore 
witness to the anxious thought of the women 
and children at home, and cheered and sus- 
tained many a battle-scarred veteran. 

Professor Hyde both had and saw many 
hairbreadth escapes. Shells frequently ex- 
ploded at his very feet, killing and wounding 
men on every side, but not coming ^^nigh 
him. ' ' Once he stood on an elevation watch- 
ing the panorama of conflict, and as he 
stepped down another leaped into his place 

63 



AMMI BEADFORD HYDE 

only to be stricken instantly by a ball from 
the enemy's guns. Once lie stooped and 
drank from a spring. Another, who right 
after him stooped at the same spot had his 
life snnffed ont while quenching his thirst. 
On another occasion across a death-swept 
valley went a rider on horse at mad speed- 
head, body, tail making one straight line. A 
shell came screaming through the air, and all 
who saw it held their breath; for it appeared 
likely to blot out horse and rider. But lo! 
it clipped off the end of the horse's tail, the 
animal kicked desperately, and then sped on 
toward its goal. At sight of the horse's 
frantic remonstrance the men laughed loud 
and long and thought of the incident as a bit 
of grim fun. Thus does comedy ever hover 
near tragedy upon the battlefield, and the cry 
of pain yields easily to the peal of laughter. 
AVliat a sublime and awful thing is war ! And 
Professor Hyde took in all this spectacle with 
a keen and appreciative mind. 

One day he was walking along when a 
soldier on a horse passed him. Eeining up, 
the soldier said, ^^Will you give me five dol- 
lars for this horse?" Instantly it occurred 
to him that the soldier had come by the ani- 

64 



CAEEER AS TEACHER 



mal in a questionable manner. He replied 
that he conld not give the amount asked, 
whereupon the other rejoined, ^^Well, give 
me a bottle of mne and he 's yours ! ' ' But 
no bottle of wine was forthcoming, and the 
soldier rode on his way. 

Once he heard some drummer boys teas- 
ing a Negro lad. Presently a white boy re- 
marked reprovingly: ^^I wouldn't tease a 
nigger. I might want him to give me a drink 
of water when I am dying ! ' ' 

Thus charity gleamed forth from time to 
time, though bullets spit spitefully and shells 
shrieked defiance and men ever bit the dust. 
Was it William Tecumseh Sherman who 
said, ^^War is hell?" Virginia felt it in the 
year '64. 

But the day came when our friend ceased 
his labors with the army and made his way 
back to his New York home. He had re- 
signed his position at Cazenovia, and for two 
years prior to going to war he had held a 
most delightful pastorate at Rushville, New 
York. Closing his work there, he moved to 
Allegheny College, at Mead^dlle, Pennsyl- 
vania ; and of his activities there we will now 
speak. 

3 65 



AMMI BRADFOED HYDE 



3. Life at Allegheny College. 

Allegheny College has to-day not over 
four hundred students per year and a Fac- 
ulty of thirty, though it is substantially 
equipped with buildings, has a half million 
dollars of endowment, and is a maker of men 
and women of character and strength. But 
at the time when Professor Hyde cast in his 
lot with the college there were fewer students 
and a much smaller teaching force, albeit 
Allegheny was even then fifty years old. In 
those days Meadville seemed quite a Western 
town, and Mrs. Hyde looked with reluctance 
on the prospect of a sojourn there. She had 
many strong attachments in Eushville, and 
would have been entirely willing for her hus- 
band to remain permanently in the work of 
the Christian ministry. But he was capti- 
vated with the genuine aristocracy of the 
teacher's calling and hence could not think 
of giving it up permanently. 

The first president under whom Professor 
Hyde served in Allegheny was George 
Loomis. He did no teaching, but devoted 
his energies to widening the circle of the in- 
stitution ^s friends. His forte was in social 

66 



CAREER AS TEACHER 



and personal matters, but he was also a good 
preacher. It was President Loomis who suc- 
ceeded in securing the interested attention of 
Mr. Culver, the millionaire, of whom a word 
farther on. Loomis also became closely ac- 
quainted with a Mr. Lewis Miller, whose 
home was in Akron, Ohio, founder of the 
original Chautauqua in New York State. 

Loomis was succeeded by Lucius M. Bug- 
bee. He had previously been a banker and 
had also had charge of the Cincinnati (Ohio) 
Female College. A son is now a preacher of 
influence in Massachusetts. President Bug- 
bee was a good organizer and gave valuable 
service to Allegheny at an important period 
in her history. After a time he was com- 
pelled to resign because of ill-health. His 
wife, Emily, was a poetess of merit. 

Following Bugbee came David H. 
Wheeler. He had been minister to Italy, and 
so was a man of some note in a public way. 
He had a very respectable mastery of the 
Italian language, and sometimes preached in 
Italian. He was considerable of an English 
specialist, and he published a book entitled 
' ' Byways in English Literature. ' ' This book 
was extensively used along about 1880. 

67 



AMMI BRADFORD HYDE 

The life at Meadville was a busy one for 
the Hydes. Here for the first time in his 
life Professor Hyde had a reasonable number 
of classes per day. Always before going to 
Allegheny, and mnoh of the time after leav- 
ing Allegheny, he taught a great variety of 
work and heard a large number of classes 
each day. But at Meadville he at first de- 
voted himself exclusively to the Gr^ek lan- 
guage and literature, and had but three 
classes a day. However, he had become 
so accustomed to teaching extensively that 
it is not surprising that he soon asso- 
ciated himself with Jeremiah Tingley, then 
professor in Allegheny College, now en- 
gaged in a Pittsburgh high school, in start- 
ing similar college work for young women 
in the town, inasmuch as at that time Alle- 
gheny opened her doors to men only. He 
arranged his college classes to come in the 
forenoon, and his work with the young ladies 
in the afternoon. This work inaugurated 
with the young women was later taken over 
by Allegheny College, when she finally began 
to receive students of both sexes. So Pro- 
fessor Hyde was a pioneer in the work of co- 

68 



CAREER AS TEACHER 



education in old Allegheny, dating from 
about the year 1875. 

After some years of service as professor 
^of Greek, he was urged by the president to 
become professor of Hebrew and English lit- 
erature. Though the English literature was 
apparently beside the mark" for him, he 
gracefully acceded to the president's wish. 
Ultimately, at any rate, the change was not 
regretted. Into the new department he took 
a wonderful classical awakening and was able 
to lay much needed stress on that vitally im- 
portant side of English, viz., its classical ele- 
ment. At the same time his work in English 
was a splendid auxiliary in his subsequent 
handling of the classics. As for the Hebrew, 
it had much to do with giving a profound 
appreciation of the Old Testament and was 
later adroitly utilized in the numerous ar- 
ticles contributed to religious magazines and 
papers. So it transpired that he was a real 
lover and an inspiring teacher of classics both 
ancient and modern; and this accounts for 
the establishment of the Hyde Alcove of An- 
cient and Modern Classics in the recently 
erected Carnegie Library of the University 

69 



AMMI BRADFORD HYDE 



of Denver. To the Hyde Alcove Fund scores 
of money contributions were made by friends 
and former students who reside in various 
parts of America. 

During Dr. Hyde 's stay at Allegheny, the 
college found a staunch benefactor in the per- 
son of Mr. Charles A. Culver, still living, who 
was deeply engrossed with the possibilities 
of the great oil fields of Pennsylvania. Alle- 
gheny had but two buildings when Dr. Hyde 
went to Meadville, and they were barely re- 
spectable. Moreover, she had no endowment 
worth mentioning, save what was termed the 
Centenary Fund, amounting to some $80,000. 
The salaries were modest. The full pro- 
fessor got about $1,200, and the payments 
were likely to be rather irregular. To-day 
Allegheny pays her full professor $2,000. 

Mr. Culver's attention was secured and 
he presented the institution a valuable min- 
eralogical collection worth ten thousand dol- 
lars. He was solicitous, too, for the personal 
comfort and security of the teachers; and 
accordingly had their lives insured for two 
thousand dollars apiece. This idea was 
surely in advance of the times. But it was 
an earnest of what is likely to be done for 

70 



CAEEEE AS TEACHEE 



faithful, long-service teachers raore and more. 
Mr. Culver also built for the college a men's 
dormitory, which was a distinct addition to 
the equipment. It appeared that he was 
strongly inclined to endow the college and 
that in liberal fashion; but just at the time 
when the expectation of the institution's 
friends was raised to a high pitch and there 
was extravagant dreams of future greatness 
for the college, Mr. Culver was suddenly 
overtaken by financial reverses. He and his 
brother together failed for something like 
four millions of dollars ; and, although he met 
the disaster bravely and has made valiant ef- 
forts to re-establish himself, he has never re- 
covered the princely fortune that he once pos- 
sessed. He was regarded as a man of distinct 
commercial genius, and at one time was of- 
fered, but declined, thirty thousand dollars a 
year to go to Central City, Colorado, and 
manage some mining enterprises. He was 
looked upon as a man noble and unselfish, 
one truly devoted to the question of the 
proper fitting of the young for far-reaching 
endeavor in life, and Allegheny College had 
in him a sincere well-wisher. 

As at Cazenovia, so at Allegheny College, 
71 



AMMI BEADFORD HYDE 



Dr. Hyde had some students who in follow- 
ing years attained prominence. Here again 
it was his province to stir the thought and 
shape the convictions of future bishops. One 
of them was Merriman C. Harris, now bishop 
of Korea. He was a young man of cheerful 
and open turn of mind and genuinely reli- 
gious. 

There came to Meadville one fall a young 
man of slight build and dark complexion and 
versatile mind. He was born in India and 
had never seen snow fly. Previous to coming 
to America he had married, but he left his 
wife in the Orient while he should be secur- 
ing college training in America. He at once 
became acquainted with the subject of our 
story and with Mrs. Hyde. The latter urged 
that he bring his wife from India and give 
her the same opportunity for a college edu- 
cation that he had, saying to him that it was 
manifestly unfair to deny her an equal chance 
and that such a denial would make a gulf 
between them in the years to come. Accord- 
ingly the wife was brought over to this coun- 
try, the funds for her maintenance being 
raised largely, if not entirely, by Mrs. Hyde. 
This incident is typical of Mrs. Hyde's ca- 

72 



CAEEER AS TEACHEE 

pacity for bringing things to pass. Eemem- 
ber, she was Scotch! The yonng couple 
proved to be of "amisual caliber; and in re- 
cent years the Methodist Episcopal Chnrch 
has acted wisely in electing the hnsband to 
the bishopric, and to-day Bishop Oldham is 
familiarly known in both the Orient and the 
Occident. His fitting for his work as bishop 
was peculiar, for even as a young man his 
knowledge of conditions in India was amaz- 
ing. Nothing escaped his eagle eye. He 
knew everything, from a mosquito to an ele- 
phant. Bishop Oldham is a master of simple 
but elegant English, a most fascinating pul- 
pit speaker, without a peer in his understand- 
ing of the religious status of India, and pos- 
sessed of deep piety. The work he is doing in 
the East is epoch-making and statesmanlike. 

Wayne Whipple was another of our pro- 
fessor's Allegheny pupils. Against great 
odds he has successfully battled and has won 
for himself a substantial name as a writer, 
having already produced an exceedingly pop- 
ular and charming Story Life of Lincoln," 
and having now under way a similar life of 
Washington. To these two great Americans 
his books will give increased fame. 

73 



AMMI BEADFORD HYDE 

Familiar to magazine readers, also, is Ida 
M. Tarbell, whose History of Abraham Lin- 
coln,'' account of the Standard Oil situation, 
her articles on ^^The American Woman," and 
various other interesting and illuminating 
discussions have attracted wide and favor- 
able notice. She was under Professor Hyde's 
tutelage, as was also a young man by the 
name of Lownds, who later was elected the 
only Eepublican governor the State of Mary- 
land has yet had. 

Camden M. Cobern, too, remembers with 
gratitude the intellectual impetus received 
in his illustrious teacher's classes; and 
through all the years of his experience 
as minister in prominent pulpits, such as 
Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church in 
Denver, and as professor at Allegheny 
College, he has profited by his contact with 
his inspiring preceptor. Only recently he 
succeeded him as writer of Sunday school 
notes for the Pittsburgh Christian Advocate. 
On the occasion of Dr. Hyde's eighty-fourth 
birthday he wrote him an affectionate letter, 
in which he said: '^I count it as one of the 
best things in my life that I had you as my 
teacher at the time I needed most to get high 

74 



CAREER AS TEACHER 



scholastic ideals. I had never seen any one 
before who impressed me as you did, and I 
have never seen but one since. Much, very 
much, I owe to you for your kind and skill- 
ful work in developing in the raw country 
boy a better method of living and thinking. 
If I shall amount to anything worth while in 
any department of thought, you and Presi- 
dent Warren^ will have to divide up the re- 
sponsibility for that." 

The informal character of our story may 
permit an item of totally different sort. 
There is to-day in the museum at Allegheny 
College the skin of a huge boa constrictor 
that was killed in Africa. It chanced that 
some natives were one day in the forest when 
they came upon the serpent and had to battle 
for their lives. Having killed the creature, 
as they supposed, they concluded that it 
would make a good present for their friend, 
the missionary from America. They there- 
fore shouldered it land carried it into town. 
Arriving at the missionary's abode, one of 
the natives went into the house to tell the 
news; but while he was inside, the boa's 

1 For thirty-seven years President of Boston University, more recently Dean 
of the School of Theology in that institution; a man of precise scholarship and 
extensive knowledge, and noted for his inspirational teaching. 

75 



AMMI BEADFORD HYDE 

f 

tail became suddenly active and, wrapping 
round one of the Africans, crushed every 
bone in his body ! The other, seizing a stone, 
hammered the boa's head until it was dead 
for good and all, and it was then hung up 
and the skin stripped from the body. The 
skin was then dried, and the missionary 
brought it to America, where it finally came 
into the possession of Dr. Hyde, who pre- 
sented it to the museum of Allegheny College, 
where it may be seen to-day. Though this 
is a snake story," its truth is solemnly 
vouched for. 

Our educator's labors at Meadville were 
ceaseless and diversified. Being in the prime 
of life and eager to accomplish things, he 
did not content himself even with teaching in 
two places at the same time, but his literary 
tastes prompted writing for papers and 
otherwise. And thus began in real earnest 
those literary activities that continued with- 
out interruption till he was past eighty-four. 
His literary doings will receive more ex- 
tended treatment elsewhere. Writing was 
supplemented by preaching and lecturing. 
He was welcomed to the best pulpits of the 
surrounding vicinity, and he would have been 

76 



CAEEER AS TEACHER 



received with cordiality as pastor by a num- 
ber of prominent Churcbes. Furthermore, 
he was always a delightful speaker on any 
secular subject which he chose to discuss, and 
was invariably listened to with pronounced 
eagerness. 

After twenty years of faithful and highly 
satisfactory service at Allegheny, he was 
urged to go to Denver and accept a chair in 
the University of Denver. He was assisted 
in making his decision to accept this invita- 
tion by the condition of his wife's health. 
The physicians recommended the change, 
confidently expressing the feeling that such 
shift would materially lengthen her life. And 
so the transfer was made, and it is pleasant 
to record that they never regretted their ac- 
tion. Mrs. Hyde was noticeably benefited 
by the climate, and Dr. Hyde himself has pos- 
sibly added years to his Nestorian career 
under the turquoise sky of the Centennial 
Stkte. 

4. Laboes in the Ui^iveksity of Denvee. 

At the time when Dr. Hyde went West 
to his third field of educational activity, 
David Hastings Moore was chancellor of 

77 



AMMI BRADFOED HYDE 



the University of Denver. Having trained 
bishops, our excellent scholar was certainly 
fitted to associate with two chancellors of the 
University of Denver who forged ahead till 
they reached the highest distinction that 
Methodism could confer upon them. These 
men were David H. Moore and William F. 
McDowell. 

Besides, having enjoyed the privilege of 
teaching those who afterward became states- 
men of national reputation, he was a worthy 
co-laborer of Henry Augustus Buchtel, who, 
after being chancellor of the University of 
Denver for some time, was elected governor 
of Colorado, serving one term with conspicu- 
ous success ; at the same time, upon the earn- 
est solicitation of the Trustees, retaining the 
chancellorship of the university. No one was 
happier than was Dr. Hyde at the political 
honor conferred upon Chancellor Buchtel, for 
whom he has intense admiration and whose 
phenomenal work for the university receives 
his unstinted praise. 

Dr. Hyde came to Denver in 1884, a quar- 
ter of a century ago. The place he accepted 
had been held by Charles W. Super, later 

78 



CAEEEE AS TEACHER 



the well-known professor of Greek in Ohio 
University, Athens, Ohio. 

At that time David H. Moore was at his 
best, surcharged with physical and mental 
vigor; and, though he still does yeoman serv- 
ice for the Church, with perhaps years of 
activity ahead, yet in those days he was in 
many respects little short of marvelous. He 
was a splendid mixer, a swinging orator, and 
a born leader. He was a colonel in the Civil 
War, and he has never lost the knack of put- 
ting the fighting spirit into people with whom 
he labors. He was and still is pre-eminently 
influential with the masses. Dr. Hyde thor- 
oughly admired Chancellor Moore, and in the 
writer's hearing has paid glowing tribute to 
his strength and resourcefulness. He de- 
clares that Moore could easily have held high 
political office in Colorado, had he set out to 
win it. 

In the year 1889 Chancellor Moore was 
suddenly surprised to receive a telegram 
from those in authority asking him to go to 
Cincinnati, Ohio, and assume the editorship 
of the Western Christian Advocate. He 
wired a declination. Again he was urged 

79 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



to accept and was emphatically informed that 
a negative answer would not be considered. 
He therefore yielded and had a most brilliant 
term as editor, being promoted from the edi- 
torship to the bishopric. 

At Chancellor Moore's retirement from 
the University of Denver, Dr. Hyde was made 
vice-chancellor, and the brunt of the heavy 
burden rested for a year upon his shoulders. 

In those days the university had no home 
at University Park, where the Liberal Arts 
department is now housed. All the activities 
centered in the heart of Denver, in the neigh- 
borhood of Fourteenth and Arapahoe Streets, 
where are still located the professional 
schools of the institution. Dr. Hyde taught 
Greek, Latin, French, and German, and occu- 
pied himself the rest of his working hours 
with an assortment of duties, not the least of 
which was the regulation of affairs in gen- 
eral. 

Presently William Fraser McDowell was 
selected as chancellor to take the place of 
David Hastings Moore. The new chancellor 
was a man of splendid parts, who gave a 
decade and more of service to the university 
at the most trying period of her history, be- 

80 



CAREER AS TEACHER 

ing compelled to face those dark days when 
fortunes went skyrocketing and the sheriff's 
hammer threatened constantly. In Septem- 
ber, 1908, former Chancellor, then Bishop 
McDowell, in a masterly address to the stu- 
dents of the university at the opening of the 
fall quarter, vividly sketched that gloomy 
period of the early nineties when, all busi- 
ness paralyzed, the university apparently 
hopelessly bankrupt, he one day went to his 
study in utter despair and comforted himself 
by taking out his college diploma and grimly 
reflecting that, though notes and mortgages 
were but so much useless paper and bank ac- 
counts but little more than a hollow mockery, 
he had in his mind and soul that discipline 
which, coupled with admirable physique, 
could be pitted with confidence against all 
the hosts of opposition. He was in the cru- 
cible then; but the severe testing he under- 
went contributed toward making him the 
commanding figure that he is to-day in the 
episcopacy. 

Between the new chancellor and our good 
friend Dr. Hyde a strong attachment sprang 
up. But Dr. Hyde has always been eminently 
loyal to his superiors. No one element in his 

81 



AMMI BEADFORD HYDE 

make-up is more notable than Ms whole-' 
hearted fidelity to those over him. He has 
always had large hopes for the University of 
Denver, and has been permitted to see the 
dawn of what is a truly remarkable era. His 
faith in Chancellor Buchtel and in the insti- 
tution's prospects under his vigorous leader- 
ship is sublime — the faith that laughs at im- 
possibilities and crieSj ^^It shall be done!'' 
In the year 1891 Chancellor McDowell 
thought to give the venerable professor a rare 
treat by arranging for him a trip abroad. 
Accordingly he wrote to many of Dr. Hyde 's 
friends and admirers scattered up and down 
the land, inviting contributions to a fund be- 
ing raised to enable Dr. Hyde to see ^^his 
native country" — Greece! And so the night 
after the Commencement of 1891 he set out 
upon his journey. He was sixty- six years of 
age, and had taught Greek for forty-five years 
without ever having sufficient vacation or 
money to get beyond the borders of America. 
His career had been till then, as indeed one 
may say always, a career of astonishing ac- 
tivity and crowded with a multiplicity of ex- 
acting duties. With what feelings of restless 

82 



CAREER AS TEACHER 



anticipation^ therefore, he set out to view 
those historic scenes about which he had long 
read, and which, in fact, had given color to 
his whole life ! His opportunity was limited. 
He could be away no longer than the summer 
vacation. He would be imperatively needed 
in September, when the new college year be- 
gan. So he must forego matters of lesser 
moment and strike at once for things of su- 
preme interest and concern to him. 

Once across the Atlantic, he had a bird's- 
eye view of Hamburg and Berlin, and then 
struck out for Vienna, and thence made his 
way to Athens. Now he was on the ground 
where in days of old held forth the heroic 
commanders and soul- stirring orators and in- 
spired poets who had become the idol of his 
scholastic realm. With what eagerness he 
rambled through the ruins of the famous city, 
thinking of Pericles and Demosthenes and 
^schylus and Plato ! What emotions surged 
through his heart as he stood on the battle- 
field of Marathon, and how the fires blazed 
within as he ever and anon repeated to him- 
self those enlivening sentiments of Lord 
Byron : 

83 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



"The Isles of Greece! The Isles of Greece! 

Where burning Sappho loved and sung, 
Where grew the arts of war and peace, 

Where Delos rose and Phoebus sprung! 
Eternal summer gilds them yet, 
But all except their sun is set! " 

And again: 

''A king sat on the rocky brow 

That looks o'er sea-born Salamis; 
And ships by thousands lay below, 

And men in nations, — all were his. 
He counted them at break of day, 
And when the sun set where were they? '' 

At the time of his visit to Athens, Dr. 
Hyde saw the famous palace erected by that 
wealthy and brilliant investigator, Dr. Schlie- 
mann, whose excavations at Troy have be- 
come knowm throughout the world. This 
mansion was built to represent the Homeric 
palace; and the noted German, in order to 
testify as fully as possible to his devotion 
to the mighty past of Greece and Troy, had 
named a son Agamemnon and a daughter 
Andromache 1 

In the presence of these and countless 
other objects of interest, our traveller spent 

84 



CAEEER AS TEACHER 



a summer all too short, yearning for two 
years rather than two months in which to 
contemplate those wondrously suggestive 
traces of that leader among nations twenty- 
five centuries ago. 

But he must turn his steps toward the 
West again. Taking ship from Greece, he 
landed at Brindisi, the Brundisium of clas- 
sical times, from which the Romans of the 
days of Cicero and Caesar and Horace were 
wont to embark for Athens to study philos- 
ophy and finish off their education. The days 
were precious. Time was scarcely taken for 
the requisite sleep. Eighteen hours out of 
every twenty-four he bent all his energies to 
the delightful task. Proceeding up through 
Italy, he had a glimpse of Naples, saw Mount 
Vesuvius, and thought of the great eruption 
of 79 A. D., which buried Pompeii and Hercu- 
laneum and proved the fatal venture for 
Pliny the Elder. 

Arriving at Rome he again endeavored to 
see everything of attraction to the classical 
scholar. It was no violent stretch of the 
imagination to feel himself in the Roman 
senate listening to Cicero as he hurled appal- 
ling interrogatories and bitter invective at 

85 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



Catiline, who, like wounded animal at bay, 
showed in his crafty conntenance mingled 
hate and fear and defiance. 

He recalled Angnstns and his friendship 
for Vergil and Horace and the rest. He 
thought now of gladiatorial combats, now of 
chariot races, now of Christians thrown to 
the lions. These and ten thousand other re- 
minders of the life that had been there filled 
all his waking moments and even crept into 
his dreams ; and he left Eome as he had de- 
parted from Athens, regretting that he could 
not linger. But he had been ^^bom again" 
in classic lore. 

With a sigh at the fleeting character of his 
experience, but intensely grateful that he had 
had it at all, he pushed north through the 
gorgeous scenery of Switzerland, and then, 
after a brief stay in Paris, he passed over 
to the British Isles, saw the leading points 
of interest in London and Edinburgh, and was 
off again, retracing his path across the At- 
lantic. 

. Back again on American soil and speeding 
Westward to the field of his labors, he could 
hardly realize that his sojourn abroad had 
been other than a vision ; but in the strength 

86 



CAREER AS TEACHER 



of that vision he resumed his welcome task, 
stirring the youthful mind by dynamic refer- 
ence to what his eyes had beheld and his 
soul had experienced at first hand. As one 
result of his European holiday, he subse- 
quently gave numerous lectures fraught with 
far-reaching suggestion and teeming with 
most delightful entertainment. 

In his latest days he is enjoying the satis- 
faction that comes to the heart of every edu- 
cator as he reflects upon the numerous youth- 
ful lives he has had opportunity to stimulate. 
And his sweetest consolation, aside from his 
hope of a glorious existence in the world to 
come, is the consciousness that, after he 
passes across the border-line, he can con- 
tinue to live in the esteem and affection of a 
host of students who caught from him some 
notion of the unspeakable possibilities of a 
human life. His teaching career lasted for 
seventy years. He has wrought well. He has 
touched man's triple nature — body, mind, 
soul. No one, perhaps, could with clearer 
conscience appropriate to himself the words 
of the Apostle Paul, ^^I have fought a good 
fight, I have finished my work, I have kept 
the faith!" 

87 



AMMI BRADFORD HYDE 

Ammi Bradford Hyde is unsurpassed 
for his sincere and skillful compliment of 
others and for the conspicuous brevity and 
downright humility of his statements regard- 
ing himself. Forced to call attention to any- 
thing in his life or work, he almost invari- 
ahly prefaces the allusion by sajdng, Par- 
don me for referring to myself." He never 
sounds his own praises. Others seek him. 
He does not advertise himself in cheap or 
regrettable fashion; and so he has lost some 
handsome positions. But he never learned 
to play the politician in seeking advance- 
ment. The result is that he has had a 
career at once humble and glorious — ^humble 
as men regard earthly preferment; glorious, 
since in his declining years he does not have 
to face the uncanny ghost of self -exploitation. 
A rare man ! Regarded with love unfeigned 
in his latter days, when many men grow fret- 
ful and cynical and unlovely. What marvel- 
ous eagerness the young men and women 
manifest to- catch every syllable of these 
latest chapel talks. Verily, in his closing 
days he is a most impressive exponent of 
the true values of life. ^^We shall not see 
his like again." 

88 



CAREER AS TEACHER 



In the Methodist Review for November- 
December, 1903, in an article entitled '^The 
Teacher's Calling,'' Dr. Hyde gives a com- 
prehensive notion of his conception of the line 
of activity to which his life has been mainly 
devoted. Consider a group of sentiments 
therein set forth: 

One who entered it [the teacher's work] 
in the year of Victoria's crowning and who 
for seventy years went in and out accomplish- 
ing its service may be f airly thought to know 
something of its nature. Teaching is now 
one of the great ^ ^businesses," with branches 
many and varied, dealing or aspiring to deal 
with all the young of our species ; that is to 
say, with all our species. Viewed in its ag- 
gregate, it is oceanic and sublime, fit theme 
for orators. '. . . 

The beginner in our calling may, like a 
recruit in the army, like a ship putting to 
sea, have initial stock and store in good sup- 
ply, yet he is at its beginning only. Even 
here one endowment born, not gained, he must 
have — the teacher temperament. This is not 
easy to define. It is a fitness to be the color- 
less link between truth and soul, as the 
Colorado beet between sunshine and sugar, 
inexhaustible light and sweetness on either 
hand. . . . 

Equipped thus fairly as he may be, he 
89 



AMMI BBADFOED HYDE 



finds as he begins his work his intellectual 
activity developed with new energy. The de- 
mand for it is enormous. It is not merely 
that even the simplest branch of every course 
of study is now rapidly unfolding, liable to 
change its aspect and call for methods some- 
what new, but his study of his pupils is to be 
earnest, careful, unceasing. ... If his 
teaching does not touch them it is wasted. 
. . . These [the pupils] are living vol- 
umes, and to master these is the teacher's 
task when schoolroom work is done, even to 
remember them on his bed and canvass them 
in his night watches. . . . 

Another lively call upon the teacher is 
that for reverence toward his pupils. . . . 
Awkward, heedless, willful they may be, but 
they are human, and there is a duty to even 
the stupid and the bad. . . . 

Still another grave demand upon the 
teacher is this — to create the atmosphere of 
the schoolroom. It was in a rude district of 
rural Connecticut, where an athlete had ut- 
terly failed, that it came clear to this peda- 
gogue that three-quarters of his work was 
to be done with the heart. Years have 
strengthened the conviction. . . . Love 
your pupils. . . . 

As for financial returns, the calling is one 
of earnings, not of profits. ... In view 
of the cost of preparation, the teacher is the 
most scantily paid of all the intellectual la- 

90 



CAREER AS TEACHER 



borers except those in the gospel ministry. 
. . . Virtue may be its own reward, yet 
it has some need of margin. ... A pro- 
fessor's wife in one of our richest universi- 
ties was asked how the Faculty could live so 
handsomely on salaries so meager. ^^By 
marrying rich wifes," she, smiling, answered. 
. . . On the whole, those called to the 
teacher's calling are not likely soon to put on 
purple and fine linen. . . . 

As to social standing, the teacher has 
small cause of discontent. . . . Teachers 
are nobly at home in conversation. For this 
their daily service is a training. . . . 

Stormy applause is not for the teacher. 
The breath of fame does not blow his way; 
the air of good conscience he himself may 
inhale, and it is fragrant and salutary, but 
breezes spiced with eulogy wing their way 
along lines of more startling achievement. 
. . . Our calling has small space on the 
scroll of fame, its workings being behind 
screen and out of the glare. One reads of 
the prowess of Achilles, and thinks little of 
Charon, the centaur, who trained him; of 
Alexander, quite apart from Aristotle as his 
tutor; of Julius C^sar, oblivious of Gnipho, 
who taught him. Ah, well ! The work needs 
not the label of the worker's name. 

Eminently pertinent and comprehensive 
these statements ; and the writer has been no 

91 



AMMI BEADFORD HYDE 



mere theorist. Thous'ands will bear witness 
that the truths uttered are woven into the 
warp and woof of his very being and are con- 
stantly emphasized in his daily life. He 
practices what he preaches. 




THE HYDE COAT OF ARMS. 



Ill 



SELECTIONS FROM DIARY AND COR- 
RESPONDENCE 

At various times during his life he kept a 
diary. The earliest efforts in this line were 
when he was about thirteen years of age. 
Some extracts from his youthful record will 
contain hints of interest. There is perhaps 
little that is unusual^ but the efforts of the 
twelve-year-old boy are likely to carry a sug- 
gestion of what is in store for the future. 
Beginning in the month of November, 1837, 
he writes as follows : 

Thursday, the 23d. — This morning was 
cold and blustering, with flurries of snow. As 
the first class was reciting in school the chim- 
ney got on fire, which made quite a rumpus. 
To-night it cleared off and was quite cold, 
and in the evening I wrote a letter to Wash- 
ington Gr. Wheeler, of Lisle, an old friend. 
There was a cotillion party to-night at the 
fort hill house. 

93 



AMMI BRADFOED HYDE 



Friday y the 24th. — This morning was also 
very cold. I tried the ice, bnt it was so weak 
(for a small snow had fallen during the 
night) that it would not bear me. It was very- 
cold all day. At night I went to Mr. North- 
rup's to get one of Peter's shoes mended. 
My boots were not big enough, so Mr. Walker 
had to make me another, the third pair. 
When I came home I read some very good 
stories in the lady's book. 

Saturday, the 25th. — The morning was 
cold and snowy. In the forenoon in school 
the clock stopped.^ At noon I went on the 
ice and broke in and got both of my feet wet. 
After drying them I went over the river and 
stayed with Henry a spell. It grew colder 
every moment. When coming home I looked 
into Dr. Butler's yard and saw father with 
Harry Balcom's team getting hay. I went 
and trod down hay in the wagon and drove 
home. x4.fter we had unloaded, I drove over 
to Mr. Balcom's house to leave the team. I 
like to drive horses, but father always likes 
an excuse from touching one. At dark it was 
very cold. 

Sunday, the 26th. — It was very cold all 
day ; but at night it was warmer. 

Monday, the 27th. — It was very cold to- 
day also. This noon I took my skates for 



1 Note that school was "keeping" on Saturday. 

94 



SELECTIONS FEOM DIARY 



the first time this year and went down on the 
ice to skate. I found Mr. Thnrber's boys 
busily engaged in breaking np the ice be- 
cause Mr. Hunt's boys had hurt somewhat 
their sliding-place, so out of revenge they 
were determined to destroy it altogether. 
Father talked some of getting another pig, 
for he thought he could keep one in addition 
to mine, but at last he concluded not to get 
one. In the evening I wrote my composition. 

Tuesday, the 28th. — It was somewhat 
colder to-day. When the class in school had 
read, Dr. Clark came posting over to Mr. Mc- 
Koon with the news that the ice on the cove 
was unsafe, that he had seen several boys of 
the Academy skate too near its edge, and that 
he (being a Trustee) wished Mr. McKoon to 
speak to the foreign scholars against going 
upon it: which he faithfully did, but at noon 
there were more boys on it than there had 
been at any time before. In the evening I 
went to meeting about the singing school, but 
at a little past eight o'clock I came home, 
cold, cross, and discontented. At noon there 
was a rumor that Mr. Judson 's building over 
the river had got on fire, but I believe it only 
burnt a small place in the floor. 

Wednesday, the 29th, — This morning it 
rained a little, but the sun came out and 
shone nearly all the forenoon. Our cow has 
got a notion of pulling me otf in the mud 

95 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 

towards the place where some cabbages grew 
last summer, to pick up the leaves. We feed 
her about half of a bushel of rutabagas a day 
and what hay she will eat, and she keeps fat 
and gives about seven or eight quarts of milk 
daily. Our pig is now about two months old 
and grows rapidly. To-day he jumped out of 
his pen twice. In the afternoon the girls 
came up-stairs to hear the compositions read, 
for last "Wednesday all spoke and to-day all 
read. Mr. Sturges is by far the best writer 
in school at present. In the evening I went 
to the Universalist singing school, but I do 
not think that Mr. Carpenter is as good a 
teacher as Mr. Bowers. 

Thursday, the 50^/^.~This was the day 
appointed by Governor William L. Marcy for 
Thanksgiving, and completed the second week 
from the commencement of this journal. In 
the forenoon I piled up wood and helped 
father cut up a hog which weighed 294 lbs., 
and was the fattest one we have ever had. 
In the afternoon I took Peter and went over 
the river. I took some bags down to Mr. 
Dudley's for Mr. A. F. Lee (who gave me 
sixpence worth of quills for doing it), where 
I had an opportunity of seeing the pigs and 
hogs. Mr. Lee's hog is a ^^rauncher" and 
will probably weigh 400 lbs. before he kills. 
I could not get a fair view of Mr. Dudley's 
hog, but I presume that he is larger. Mr. 

96 



SELECTIONS FROM DIAEY 



Dudley's pig is not half as big as ours, but 
I should not think he was quite so old. To- 
day George N. Williams was here from col- 
lege, who formerly lived here. I finished the 
day by doing my chores and splitting and 
piling up wood. In the evening Jared and 
Henry came over to eat and drink Thanks- 
giving with us. 

Friday, 1st of December, 1837. — It was 
very warm. Last night I dreamed a great 
many dreams.^ While doing my chores I was 
taken with such a sickness that I could not 
go to school. 

Saturday, Dec. 2d. — I was some better to- 
day, but not enough to go to school. It was 
very foggy this morning, from which father 
prophesied a cold turn soon. About noon 
the sun came out and it was very warm. In 
the afternoon, feeling better, I went over the 
river on an errand. When I came back, hav- 
ing stopped for a spell, the boatman got me 
into his boat and spattered me till I was 
^Vpretty considerably" wet. It was so warm 
this afternoon, that the grass grew, quite 
green and fresh. In the evening I went to 
a meeting at Mrs. Wilcox's concerning the 
singing school. 

Sunday, the 3d of December. — To-day it 
was very pleasant. 



2 Naturally! It was after eating and drinking " Thanksgiving! 

4 97 



AMMI BEADFORD HYDE 



Monday, the 4th of December. — This 
morning was somewhat colder. After the 
first bell had rung for school, C. I. Hayes 
called for me to go to school. Dwight Clark 
heard some classes for Mr. McNeil. In the 
afternoon there was a very little snow. In 
the evening illustrations on astronomy were 
given at the Baptist meeting-house by R. 
McKee, but I did not attend. I lent C. I. 
Hayes a shilling to pay his passage.^ The 
Academy scholars went in for half price. To- 
day there was a man afflicted with that horrid 
disease St. Vitus 's dance begging around 
town for money to go to Utica. His nerves 
were calmed only by music, and he intended 
to go to Utica to turn the crank for an organ 
in the museum. 

Tuesday, the 5th of December —li was 
cloudy and cold this morning. To-day Ethan 
Clarke, who has been on the canal, came to 
school. The day has been very cold, and 
at night it was very clear. It will probaby 
snow to-morrow, for there was a ring round 
the moon and no stars in it. 

Wednesday, the 6th. — The weather was 
very fine for the season. In the afternoon I 
stayed at home to write a letter to grand- 
mother at Camden. In the evening I went 
to the singing school. Mr. Bowers trained 
us till ten o'clock, when I was very tired. 

3 Admission. 

98 



SELECTIONS FROM DIAEY 



Thursday, the 7th. — To-day it was rather 
chilly, but no snow. In the afternoon father 
worked on the road. In the evening I went 
to the fort-hill-honse to see the boys who 
board there. Abont 7 3/4 we went down to 
Deacon Gile's to see some boys who board 
there. Now, Mr. Gile will not allow them to 
bring boys to their room. But one of them 
named Eogers, called Chick, came '^suction" 
onto him. He made a key to fit the front door, 
and the Deacon being absent, Mrs. Gile let- 
Chick take two of us through the kitchen, 
and while they were clambering up-stairs he 
slipped to the door and unlocked it. Our 
retreat was made in the same manner but 
with more caution, for the Deacon was now 
in his shop, and this is the only way they 
can get boys into their room. 

Friday, the 8th. — To-day was very cold 
and it snowed some. In the evening I went 
over the river to see Henry. 

Saturday, the 9th. — This day was also 
very cold. I finished seven orations of Cicero 
to-day.^ I shall read no more this term. 
Clark Hayes asked me to-day to go to Guil- 
ford with him next Thursday. This evening 
I got an answer to the letter I wrote to W. 
G. "Wheeler, at which I was very glad. I 
passed the evening very comfortably by the 
fireside. 



*At the age of twelve! 

99 



AMMI BRADFORD HYDE 



Sunday, the 10th of December, 1837, — 
This mormng the snow was very nearly an 
inch deep. I attended meeting at the Meth- 
odist Chnrch as nsnal. It snowed almost all 
day and was some warmer than yesterday, 
but very slippery. 

Monday, the 11th of December, 1837. — 
This morning I saw several sleighs and cut- 
ters, but the snow was not deep enough to 
have the sleighing very good. I did not have 
mnch to do to-day at school. In the evening 
I went over to Dudley's shop. 

Thursday, the 14th, — I did not do much 
to-day worthy of notice. The snow went off 
some to-day. In the evening there was a 
donation party at Mr. Burk's, the Church 
minister. 

W e have lived with the boy of twelve 
for three weeks, and have observed that 
his life had enough of entertainment to 
make it interesting. He was given work 
at home to teach him the dignity of man- 
ual labor, he was reading Cicero's orations 
in the Academy, and was able to write a 
fair composition. Evidently he was inter- 
ested in the sports and entertainments of 
the village. Let us now add some diary en- 
tries that are of interest, but not taken con- 
secutively : 

100 



SELECTIONS FEOM DIAEY 



Thursday, 2d of January, 1838. — To-day 
I began to go to school. Clark Hayes was 
there, and many of my friends also. My 
studies will be Latin, French, Algebra, and 
Greek.^ Many scholars who had not been at 
school for some time were present. 

Monday, 14th of February, 1838. — At- 
tended school again. Tolerably pleasant. Li 
conversation Mr. Abbot said that many boys 
when yonng passed over a great deal of 
ground, but were not thorough. I took the 
hint, but let him stick me if he can on what 
I have read under his instructions. 

Though fickleness is, I hope, no part of my 
character, yet I am heartily tired of the same- 
ness of a journal and I think I will keep a 
commonplace book in which I can put down 
such anecdotes and events as please. For 
beginning see next page: 

I have got the fattest pig and father has 
got the fattest baby I ever saw. 

The Motto of the Horse 

Up hill do n't urge me — down the steep ascent 
Spare and don't urge me when my strength is 
spent. 

Impel me briskly o'er the level earth. 
But in the stable do n't forget my worth. 



^ No wonder that he attained to great facility in these languages, inasmuch 
as he was studying them all at the age of twelve or thirteen! 

101 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



^^Do you find the bump of generosity 
there?'' said a silly fellow whose head was 
undergoing phrenological examination. ^'I 
find something here rather giving/' said the 
man of heads, pressing his fingers on the 
skull. 

Woman's Secrecy 

She 's secret as the grave, — allow 

I do, I can not doubt it ; 
But, like a grave with tombstones on 

That tell you all about it ! 

A judge in Kentucky has decided that a 
dandy is a nuisance and may be kicked into 
the gutter the same as any other puppy. 

Reasoning 

If wine is poison, so is tea, 

Only in another shape. 
What matters whether one is killed 

By canister or grape ? 

Such are the interesting items that crowd 
this diary kept by a boy of twelve. Let us 
now make the contrast as wide and marked 
as possible by contemplating some of the en- 
tries found in the diary sixty years later: 

Birthday, Mch. 13, 1888 — 62 years of age. 
—A bright, warm day of the true Colorado 

102 



SELECTIONS FEOM DIAEY 



type. . . . "Wlio thinks he grows old? I 
use glasses some, but am not gray. I can 
run, jump, and do anything as vigorously as 
ever in my life. During the year I found all 
my way watered and green with the Divine 
mercy. I have not lost an hour or an occa- 
sion by illness. I have lived within my in- 
come, I have made many mistakes, but here 
I am at 62, blest with a thousand blessings. 
How much I need, how earnestly do I desire 
to be in no bondage to the world, to serve 
Christ faithfully, to put my chief concern 
upon the spiritual world that I am soon to 
enter! Mercifully help me, 0 Christ, to be 
humble, pure, and true, such as may through 
Thee find acceptance with my Judge ! 

Birthday, McJi. 13, 1890. — A busy day it 
was. My place in school gave me little time 
to think of anything outside of regular duty. 
But what a blessing to be able at sixty-four 
to run, to work, to eat, and to feel a steady 
flow of cheerful emotions ! My dear wife and 
daughter did their utmost to make the day 
agreeable and they perfectly succeeded. 

Birthday, Mch. 13, 1895: 69 years old, — 
A day stormy and cold, but in our house 
bright and cheery. Our family life has events 
so few as to illustrate the saying, Happy 
the people that have no history ! ' ' My dear 
wife, calm and comfortable; my daughter, ac- 

103 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



tive and loving ; Alice, our housekeeper, quiet, 
sympathetic, and faithful; myself flush with 
vigor as at any time in my life, with abundant 
work and ability to do it. Is not that a 
record? My ^'estate'' has mostly vanished, 
and the prospects of the school are dark, but 
there is the living God, and in Him I 
strengthen myself. My engagements are, I 
believe, fairly maintained. For twenty-five 
years I have written S. S. Notes every week, 
and the demand for them does not fail. I 
have in hand as a cash task the ^^Art 
Glimpses,'' and am writing the Whedon 
Commentary. I am pastor of our Church, 
and I have 4 to 5 classes in school. Enough ! 
. . . How strength, activity, and joy are 
given me! Bless the Lord, 0 my soul, and 
forget not all His benefits ! ' ' 

March 13, 1899: 73 years old. — A busy 
day. ... I am so little affected by years. 
My beard is grayish, but not my head, and 
I am flush with vigor. 0, to be more like 
Christ as the years increase ! . . . Judge 
Belden has this year gone, as have so many 
that I am but a survivor. As God will ! Yet, 
^'I have no fault to find with life." Gerasko 
aei didaskomenos^ (^^I grow old but ever 
learning!") 



yrjpdsKO} del didasKo/nevos- 

104 



SELECTIONS FEOM DIARY 



How the real man shows himself in these 
records! 

But additional light mil be got from a bit 
of his correspondence. It is greatly to be 
regretted that letters can not be presented, 
written at the various periods of his life. 
His correspondence as a whole wonld prob- 
ably be as good as a history of religion and 
politics and literature and philosophy for the 
last three-quarters of a century. But the 
letters that are available speak of a crucial 
time in his experience— namely, his college 
days at Wesleyan. His letters are of high 
literary quality even when he is telling or- 
dinar}^ matters ; and that is one proof of the 
excellence of his early awakening along lit- 
erary lines. But to the letters. The first 
is one written just after his arrival at Middle- 
town, in September, 1844. It recounts his ex- 
periences and impressions and reflections on 
the journey from Oxford, New York, to begin 
his work as a college student : 

My Dear Father, — I avail myself of the 
earliest leisure to relieve the anxiety I know 
you must feel for my sake, and to give you 
evidence that, though at this distance, the 

105 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



warmth of my affection for you does by no 
means diminish. 

When I parted from you in Genesee 
Street, my feelings were indescribable. The 
years of anxiety you had endured for me, 
your constant affection, your devoted and un- 
tiring care in sickness and health all passed 
in rapid review before me, and then the with- 
ering thought that I had taken leave perhaps 
forever of those who were ordained of 
heaven to be my best earthly friends and 
who had so well fulfilled the sacred office. 
Such an event is an era in my life. The 
sunny hours of the child at home were passed 
forever. I was now entering the world to 
make trial for manhood. The trials, vicis- 
situdes, and cares of life I cared not for, — 
they were dust in the balance; but, 0, to 
think of the warm hearts I was leaving, re- 
lations for which nature affords no sul3sti- 
tute (for where can we again find parents?) 
the agony of that thought was more than any 
can conceive who has never felt! Heaven 
grant that I may be spared another heart- 
rending trial like that! But the fiercest 
storm will pass. Eeason resumed her seat 
and the heaving ocean of feeling dashed in 
vain against the rugged granite of resolu- 
tion. The duties of life must be attended to. 
Times of natural sorrow none can avoid, but 
we may shun that more poignant grief which 
neglect of duty will surely bring upon us. 

106 



SELECTIONS FROM DIARY 

I proceeded immediately to the boat office 
to secure my passage. The boat, I found, 
was to start at 7.30 P. M. I then strolled 
round the city until tea time, looking at 
everything of interest. You know you wished 
to see a boat weighed. I saw it done. The 
boat entered the lock as usual. The water 
was drawn off by a gate in the bottom, run- 
ning under the city to the Mohawk. The 
boat settled upon a platform of timber which 
was sustained by the iron rigging you saw, 
and weighed like common hanging scales. I 
returned to Uncle Thomas's to tea. It was 
served in superb style, and, in addition to the 
family, I found there a yery fashionable lady 
named Graines. She was highly dressed, wore 
an enormous bustle, and jewelry enough to 
buy a good farm. They treated me in the 
kindest manner, and I remember them with 
gratitude. Fifteen minutes after seven I was 
at the boat landing, but lo ! the boat had gone, 
having arrived before its time and gone on. 
Such starting in life, or rather such not start- 
ing, may be ominous ; but I was not to blame 
for it. Nothing was left for me but to stay 
over the night in Utica. The cars were going 
down, but my passage money had been paid 
by the agent to the boat captain and could 
not be returned. So, back I went to L 's and 
staid the night. In the morning I was on 
hand early, got a breakfast on the wharf, and 
a little past seven started for Albany. The 

107 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



packet was full of a motley and diversified 
oompany, numbers of Dutch and Yankees and 
one Jew. This last was a wonderfully inter- 
esting fellow for one of his race, lively and 
agreeable. I soon got acquainted with a 
hearty old Dutchman, and enjoyed myself, 
forgetting for a while, in the novelties of the 
journey, my past and future anxiety. The 
country below Utica is fine, with much the 
same features we saw above. The canal is 
enlarged nearly all the way to Schenectady, 
and was constantly thronged with boats. The 
first place of interest is German Flatts, where 
I saw the site of Brant's house and of the 
old stone fort, noted in the Eevolutionary 
War. Little Falls is a strange place. For 
a mile and a half the bed of the river, the 
flats, and everything but the towpath are one 
solid rock. A large village is founded on 
this. I believe I saw no gardens nor any- 
thing of the kind. A short distance back 
on each side of the stream rise perpendicular 
rocks to a great height, forming a singular 
and rather romantic scene. 

Near the village the Mohawk falls irregu- 
larly for a short distance, better deserving 
the name of cascades than falls. A very good 
dinner was got for us on the boat, to which 
we did good justice. Nothing of moment oc- 
curred until we reached Ganajoharie. Here 
a hickory pole had been raised,"^ and 2,000 



7 The fall of 1844, when James K. Polk was elected President of the United 
States. ]^Qg 



SELECTIONS FROM DIARY 



people assisted. They had just finished as 
we came up, and had raised a balloon which 
soared finely up. A great number got on 
board to go home, and the way they cheered 
was good. They were in the best of spirits, 
ladies and all, and were sure of carrying all 
before them. 

As evening drew on, I began to retire 
more to my own thoughts, gloom again crept 
over me, and I mused continually on the home 
of affection I had left. Should I ever see it 
again? "Would it ever seem home again? 
Would she whose image fancy refused to 
withdraw from my sight, but presented in 
colors still more bright and vivid, the mother 
with whom God had blessed me, affectionate 
and patient mother — would she be there to 
welcome her child to her arms, or will the 
damp clods of the graveyard hide her from 
the embrace of an orphan child? But enough ! 
my writing grows dim and my throat fills 
and aches. God help me ! 

My rest that night was small, and unre- 
freshing. At 4 A. M. we were landed at 
Schenectady and set off on the railroad im- 
mediately. The distance to Troy was thir- 
teen miles, and we arrived in about an hour. 
On the way I saw hundreds of acres of good 
dry land covered with a second growth of 
brush. Wood must be valuable to pay on 
such land. I dislike a railroad. The noise 

109 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



is tedious, the scenery is lost; in fact, their 
only recommend is speed.^ 

At Troy I strolled around the dock and 
looked at the shipping, etc. There were a 
few sloops and schooners and one or two 
steamboats. The great business seemed to be 
in coal and lumber. 

At eight P. M. I started for Albany in 
the hourly stage. It is all the way like a 
splendid village, being lined with superb 
country-seats. In less than an hour I was 
whirled over a macadamized road to the 
Carlton House. Henry^ was in bed at eight. 
I hastened to his room and forgot my cares 
in the warm embrace of a loving brother. 
You may imagine my feelings. He was well 
and fat. We looked and talked to each other 
as hard as we could, until meeting time, of 
things at home. His eager inquiries I could 
scarcely satisfy. We attended the Catholic 
Church. The service of mass was in itself 
interesting, but it led my mind back in time 
to the ages when mailed knights and crested 
spearmen bowed around the holy symbol and 
a credulous people were by it led to perish on 
the plains of Palestine. The sermon was 
adorned with the flowers of rhetoric, but 
lacked in spirituality. It did not touch the 

8 Thirteen miles an hour! Things have changed. 

^ A brother two years older. At that time, though but twenty-one, he was 
Assistant Attorney General of the State. Later he became a prominent lawyer 
in Wall Street, New York City. 



110 



SELECTIONS FEOM DIARY 

heart. Tlie congregation was large, mostly 
Irish. In the P. M. we heard Bangs (I think 
son of Dr.) in the building once a circns. 
He did very well. In the evening we went 
over to Greenbush and walked on the bank 
of the river. On Monday he had little to 
do and we went over the city. The State 
buildings are magnificent. His office is the 
finest you can imagine, large, lofty, and 
splendidly furnished. We ascended the dome 
and looked out over the town. But I must 
hasten. I reminded H — of neither clothes 
nor quinces, for the simple reason that I for- 
got it myself. He paid me no money, as he 
had not received his month's pay, but will 
aid me on demand. 

At 5 P. M. I left in the boat.^ The boat 
was crowded, a fire company with a band 
of musick were on board. Some U. S. sol- 
diers, in fact some of everybody. One of 
these was unfortunate enough to insult the 
sergeant, for which he was flogged till my 
blood ran cold, then tied and left on the bow 
of the boat to cool. I make no comments — 
you do that, father. The scenery I lost, my 
sleep was no better, and I was glad when 
we landed in New York. I put my baggage 
immediately upon the Middletown boat, and 
started round the city. The first in my course 
were the docks. I saw no ship under sail, 
but a splendid Liverpool packet was lying 
there, surpassing anything I ever saw. I can 

111 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



not describe it now. I then went to the Bat- 
tery, a beautiful walk shaded by the trees 
and fanned by the cool sea breezes. The 
Park is fine, in circular form, containing deer, 
etc. I saw the Bowery, City Hall, Tammany, 
Book Concern,^^ etc., and in the P. M. visited 
the museum. Here was everything from the 
mouse to the elephant, the humming bird to 
the eagle, the shiner to the whale, — ^in fact, 
a specimen of everything that exists in na- 
ture or art. 

At 4 P. M. I started up the river to M — . 
I had no idea before of the extent of the city; 
but as we sailed nearly the leiigth of it, I be- 
gan to think it was quite a settlement. Ships 
and merchandise extended for miles, and no 
space between the buildings. We had a fine 
view of L — Island on one side and Black- 
well 's on the other, with the Penitentiary, etc. 
L — Island rises fast from the water and is 
well wooded. Hurlgate is a narrow, rocky 
channel, but presented nothing strange when 
we passed. The next thing of interest was a 
point whose name I could not learn, where 
they are building an immense fort. We soon 
had a fine sea view in one direction. John 
wants to know how it looks. All I can say 
is that right here the waves are large, out 
yonder smaller and bluer, farther still we can 
not distinguish them, and beyond is a deep 



10 Of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

112 



SELECTIONS FEOM DIARY 



blue line broken perhaps by a sail no longer 
than a finger. 

I could not pay 50c for a berth to lie 
awake in, so when tired I lay down on some 
trunks and rested well. At daylight we were 
at M. It appears well, the city on the slope 
of a hill, the U — at the top. I went to 
the hotel and after breakfast to the U — . 
Dr. Olin^^ was not at home. I found Prof. 
Smith, who gave me a room. It is No. 64, 
South Section, the back corner of the 4th 
story. It was already furnished, partly by 
my chum. I have bought a bed and blanket 
(0, if I could have some from home!), the 
sheets, etc., are included. Two chairs, a 
bookcase, etc., are absolutely needed. Pil- 
lows I got new for $1.84, the best I could do. 

Wednesday was spent in fitting my room. 
Others did the same, the building was cleaned, 
a busy time it was. On Thursday examina- 
tion commenced. It was searching and thor- 
ough beyond anything I ever saw. It showed 
every one in his real merit. I did not enter 
as I expected. In Latin I was excused from 
examination, the course in Greek I review the 
junior year, in natural science and belles- 
lettres I enter the Junior, in mathematics I 
review Freshman and enter Sophomore. To 
graduate in two years will require great ex- 
ertion and the whole time. My main trouble 
is for funds. You must write and encourage 



11 The President of Wesleyan University at that time. 

113 



AMMI BEADFORD HYDE 



me. I think, if not unfortunate, I can gradu- 
ate in two years. I practice the most rigid 
economy, yet books I can not do without. 
The Faculty are a straight-haired Methodist- 
like set of men, criticise closely and impar- 
tially. I may at some future time describe 
them to you particularly. I board in the hall 
at $1.80 per week. The fare is plain but 
plentiful and well got up, the hall keeper a 
plain, agreeable, superannuated preacher. 

The scenery about M — is fine beyond all 
I ever saw. The water, the flats, and the 
well-wooded hills recall the view you have 
south ; but here it is in every direction alike. 

Since I have been here I have had hours 
of anguish, but after prayerful inquiry I 
think I am in the path of duty and that here 
I shall be blessed. I never before felt so 
deeply the priceless value of a religion which 
sustains the soul in bitter trials. Thanks to 
Him who gave His Spirit to bless your 
prayers and counsels, I feel that I have a 
sure support in the trials of life and a Guide 
through the dark valley of death who will 
keep me from evil. I shall on Monday unite 
with the Church. Eeligion here is high, as 
you may suppose. The students are all men 
in years and character. I shall endeavour to 
be one among them. ... 

And now, my dearest parents, believe me 
as ever your earnestly loving son, 

A. B. Hyde. 



114 



SELECTIONS FROM DIARY 



After he got thoroughly settled in his new 
situation, he wrote a most interesting letter 
to his parents, in which he speaks very sug- 
gestively and fully about his situation. The 
letter follows : 

Oct. 26th, 1844. 

My Dear Parents, — By way of relief to 
my own feelings, I have determined again to 
improve a little leisure I find at my com- 
mand, in communicating to you my views and 
circumstances. I have taken care to provide 
ample space,^^ yet I have little fear of run- 
ning emptyings," for I flatter myself, nay, I 
know well that anything that concerns me will 
not be devoid of interest to you. I know, too, 
that you no longer have around you that 
warm, lively company, whose sociability was 
sure to banish despondency; and, did I think 
in my absence I could in any degree dispel 
the loneliness of which I fear you are often 
sensible, I would gladly devote to the task 
the time which others spend in pleasure or 
relaxation. You need not think I have for- 
gotten my home. It is still the bright center 
of my earthly affections. The picture mem- 
ory retains of it has lost neither warmth nor 
color, and there in bright relief is the form 
of her who bore with my peevishness in in- 

^2 Four very large pages, written in a small hand and very close together. 
Would that young men away from home might see what a model it is! 

115 



AMMI BRADFOED HYDE 

fancy and my ingratitude in advancing years, 
and who I trust still regards with affection 
her absent son. My parents, my brothers, 
and my dearest sister are firmly enshrined in 
my heart, beyond the influence of time or 
distance ; and if now while I write a bitter, 
burning tear moistens my paper, it is not 
that resolution falters or religion fails, but 
that affection must and will be heard. Yet 
I can not regret my absence from home. I 
know the trial was severe and the experiment 
doubtful; but now the clouds that hung 
around the dispensations of Providence are 
in a measure removed, the storm of feeling 
has in some degree subsided, and I can look 
with more calmness, perhaps with more truth, 
on the merits and tendencies of the steps I 
have taken. No period of my life affords me 
more satisfaction than that in which I set 
my face for Middletown. I look back to it 
with real thankfulness. I came to the right 
place in just the right time. Every day 
convinces me more and more clearly of this, 
and should my stay be no longer than this 
term, I can imagine no way in which I could 
have spent time and money to better advan- 
tage. I am sensible, if I may judge of my- 
self, that at no time in my life I have made 
more real improvement. I have not allowed 
a day nor knowingly an hour to pass without 
contributing to the acquisition of knowledge, 
the cultivation of thought, or the formation of 

116 



SELECTIONS FEOM DIARY 

character. My circTimstances have been pe- 
culiarly favorable. My former life was ad- 
mirably planned for my real good. It gave 
me iron powers of endurance, to it I owe 
whatever bodily or mental vigor and inde- 
pendence I possess. True, I am conscious of 
more improvement now than when I was on 
a farm; but the power to put under contri- 
bution my present advantages, the elements 
of sound character and the resolution and 
fortitude necessary to confront the trials and 
discharge the duties of life, if any such 
qualifications I have, they are, under God, 
owing to the indirect but legitimate effects 
of those habits of life which the judicious 
care of my parents selected and which a for- 
tunate necessity confirmed. The coral insect 
may operate unseen and unfelt in the depths 
of the ocean, and lo! we discover and won- 
der at the broad and firm foundation of 
an island in the bosom of the deep. Be 
my future course what it may, if I am 
not a man it will not be because under 
your direction my time was wasted. I 
never forget for a moment the cost of my 
present privileges. I reckon it little less 
than the price of blood. I can not banish 
the idea that to support me a father may 
be depriving himself of the comforts which 
his age requires or a sister tasking the powers 
of her slender frame. If it be any consola- 
tion or return, they may be sure that the 

117 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 

unworthy object of their regard is not con- 
scions of ingratitude to them nor knowingly 
guilty of misimprovement of their bounty. 
But, inconsistent as I may seem, I am thank- 
ful for poverty, for to it I owe both what I 
have attained and a disposition to advance 
farther. Emulation may turn to disgust, 
hope of future eminence may becomic an idle, 
worn-out tale, but necessity is a master who 
never slumbers, a spur that never dulls. It 
is the parent of exertion, a living cause of 
improvement. If a student enters college 
with right views, he need not take a step 
without benefit. Save, perhaps, the refine- 
ments of social life, I know of no branch of 
elegance or utility which may not be culti- 
vated here. There is a constant collision of 
mind with mind. We have societies for ex- 
tempore debate, for literary and argumenta- 
tive essays, and for conversation. There are 
those here who will one day fill high places 
in society, their contact engenders competi- 
tion, and competition elicits powers to which 
they were themselves strangers. You, of 
course, desire to know how I rank among 
those around me. For me to say is a dis- 
agreeable matter; but you, my parents, if 
you doubt my capacity to judge, will not 
accuse my motive nor lay to my charge a 
disposition to deceive them. As far as I may 
decide, my standing is all my most sanguine 
friends have a right to expect. I am not the 

118 



SELECTIONS FEOM DIARY 



first. It could not be supposed that it is a 
boy's play to lead a hundred students like 
ours, but I do not stand in a second rank. 

When I came here I made no display. 
I discharged my duties to the best of my 
ability and took no pains beyond that. The 
students by degrees began to notice me. I 
was elected to their societies and now for 
reputation and influence I would not change 
places with one in my acquaintance. Should 
you visit your son, you would find him hon- 
ored and respected among the first. I feel 
that my station is one of fearful responsi- 
bility, to be reckoned at the head, or rather 
so near the head, of a body like this; but I 
have consecrated my attainments and powers 
to One who is able to keep me from falling, 
except it be for my good; and I value the 
honors I enjoy only as they are for His glory. 
Should my health be spared, you may be sure 
you shall not blush for the credit of your 
family here. What I have said is for you 
alone. I do not wish it to go further, though 
I do not fear investigation. 

My religious advantages are good. 
Prayer-meetings on Sunday and Thursday 
evenings, class meetings on Monday evening. 
On Friday a few of us fast, meeting at noon 
to pray for that holiness without which no 
man can see the Lord. We have at times a 
glorious season. Every day reveals to me 
more and more clearly the worth of that re- 

119 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 

ligion which saves the soul here. Had I the 
tongue of an angel, I could not paint the 
gratitude ^Hhat glows within my ravished 
heart," for the gift of parents who pointed 
me early to the only good. If I had not the 
support of grace, I should shrink from the 
duties of life; but I know that God is my 
rock and my present help. In my religious 
experience my coming to Middletown was an 
era. But religious joys and trials are everj^- 
where the same. You can recollect or con- 
ceive what mine have been better than I can 
tell them. My impressions are neither faint 
nor feeble as to my destiny in life, and my 
friends here are firm in their opinions on the 
matter. But men can not tell. Providence 
works its own designs, and I only say, if 
necessary, ^^Here am I, send me." 

On Saturday evenings I go back three 
miles into the country to meet a class and 
have formed a pleasant acquaintance with 
the farmers there. College life and duties 
are, as I have once detailed them to you, 
regular and unvarying. In some respects I 
find them unpleasant. The principal feature 
of life here, as it regards me, is at once se- 
vere and beneficial, that is, absence from 
home. Many a time, exhausted by mental 
exertion or oppressed with bodily pain, do 
I long for the comforts of home, for a father's 
advice and a mother's sympathy, and before 
I think I am unmanned by the recollection 

120 



SELECTIONS FROM DIARY 



that I am far from their reach. But for all 
this, a conscionsness of sustaining grace and 
a sense of duty performed are ample return. 

My health is good, I fear too good; for 
I shall presume on it and at last it will fail 
when it will be too late to recover. I eat very 
moderately for me and do not fail to exercise. 
I had your advice to get into a boat and row, 
and I have done so. You shall have the par- 
ticulars. It was one fine Saturday, and three 
of us had made up our minds to go down 
the river six or seven miles to Haddam. We 
roamed along the river an hour before we 
found a boat, an old thing, but with a good 
sail, and in this at half -past ten we put out. 
Of course, I was perfectly ^ Afresh,'' nor was 
either of my companions much of a sailor; 
but the best one took charge and we started 
in high spirits. The breeze was fresh but 
fitful and almost at right angles with the 
river. We would catch the wind and run 
for a few minutes as near to our course as 
possible, and then all at once halt still and 
lie there. But look! there is wind off there 
on the water, it comes nearer and nearer; 
look out for the sail! Now comes the breeze, 
striking the broadside of the sail and tipping 
the little boat till the water almost pours 
over her side — throw the sail round and ease 
it or we are capsized, and away the boat 
flies like an arrow, foaming and splashing 
through the water. But in a few minutes we 

121 



AMMI BEADFORD HYDE 



are reminded again that we have no power 
over the elements. The wind dies down, and 
there we lie. We summoned all our philos- 
ophy and with the help of a Greek Testament 
on board we wore out the intervals very well, 
reading, criticising, etc. Three miles below 
M — we entered the narrows. Here for a half 
mile the river bends rapidly and is hemmed 
in by lofty rocks, making the na^dgation dif- 
ficult, but we got through after a while. 
. . . By fits and starts we got on, and 
about one P. M. reached H— . We looked 
around, went to a rope-walk where they were 
making a ship rope ten inches in circumfer- 
ence, and started back at three. Our return 
was a jewel of nautical experience. At first 
there was a fine breeze, we put out bravely 
into the middle of the stream, and tacked 
back and forth. Soon all was calm, and there 
we lay at work with oars to keep from going 
down stream. Then the wind would come 
again. In an hour we had hardly gained a 
mile. I was sitting there quietly in the 
middle of the boat, when puff ! came the wind 
right over a hill. Round went the sail and 
away went the valued memento of a dear 
brother, — my hat, dancing like a thing of life 
over the blue waters of the Connecticut, and 
my hdkf, as if rejoicing at a release from 
durance, hastened off as fast as possible at 
a right angle from it. But there was no 
time to think of these. The boat was about 

122 



SELECTIONS FEOM DIAEY 

as good as upset, and off we ran before the 
wind to save ourselves. We tacked and re- 
turned to look for the articles lost and had 
almost reached them, when a steamboat came 
up and sent our little craft half way to the 
moon with its swell. After it passed we 
made out to get them, but here we are down 
to Haddam again ! Well, we kept on tacking, 
gaining ten feet on our course average for a 
half mile's sailing, till sundown found us still 
there at that detestable Haddam. Now, if 
we would ever see the old Wesleyan, we must 
begin to do something. We steered up to 
the shore, turned the Conn, into a canal, and 
the bow-line into a tow-rope (you know a 
N. Yorker thinks of this first), I took the 
helm, and my friend played the horse. In 
the face of our troubles I was wicked enough 
to throw the head of the boat out into the 
stream and laugh heartily once in the while 
to see the horse" drawed in spite of him- 
self into water a foot over his hind feet. We 
towed until tired, then got some pins, hung 
our oars, and rowed home, five miles against 
a strong current, in pitch darkness. Was not 
that exercise?" I often wished myself 
mowing on Broad's flat, with Cooper and 
Haydon, by way of taking breath ! You see 
we had a taste of all the sailor's fortune, 
calm and storm and all. I was all the better 
for the trip, but do not care about trusting 
myself soon again to the caprice of the ele- 

123 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



ments! I will not attempt to give yon an 
idea of the living majesty, the airy, graceful 
sublimity of a ship nnder fnll sail. To call 
it a ^Hhing of life-' is downright dishonor, 
it does not begin to express it . . . 

Dr. Olin^'^ is now with us. He is seldom 
seen, but everywhere felt. He is six feet, 
three inches high and very large in propor- 
tion, not corpulent, but bony, — a perfect 
colossus, plain as plain can be in personal 
appearance. He never seems conscious of 
effort, but in every motion there is awful 
dignity, in every word there is a fearful 
power. I hope I may never have to endure 
a reproof from him. I would as soon meet 
Jove with his thunderbolts! A boulder of 
granite with a hard finish of flint would not 
be half so unyielding as he is. The word 
compromise" I believe never occurs to him 
as applicable to the most trifling college 
duties. And yet his feelings are tender and 
his affections strong and deep as the Amazon. 
In a word, he is a great man, and you can 
not be near him without feeling the fact. 
I heard him preach once. He began slowly 
and feebly, his eyes were not shut, but seemed 
to sink into his head until they were scarcely 
^dsible and his voice at a faint tenor key, 
just like Bishop Hedding, but fuller. At first 
I could perceive no order or arrangement in 
his thoughts; he roved over the whole em- 



13 President of Wesleyan at that time. 

124 



SELECTIONS FEOM DIARY 



pire of liuman reason. I saw the vast force 
he was collecting, but conld form no idea of 
its application. By degrees he began to con- 
verge, the velocity and power of his thonghts 
increased, there was no resistance, he swept 
us along with irresistible force; we heard the 
muttered roar of the cataract to which we 
were hastening, but we felt we were entirely 
in his power : there was a terrifick, deafening 
thunder, a fearful plunge, and lo ! all was 
calm. The enchanter had loosened his hold, 
and we gasped for a breath of air again. I 
taxed to the utmost my powers of memory 
and two-thirds of his sermon I retain now, 
but the rest — I might as well have thought of 
blotting up the thunders of heaven. Such a 
man is Dr. Olin. 

I have endeavored to get a school this 
winter. . . . By teaching one year I shall 
have means to pass my last year with ease. 
With this view I make all my acquirements 
practical. I pass nothing ivMch I can not 
explain to others fully.^^ If I pass the year 
as I have commenced, I shall be able to teach 
all the previous course. My whole knowledge 
is here in constant use. I have a pupil in 
Hebrew, one in French, and am a standing 
oracle which all students consult on almost 
all questions. ... I find life here pleas- 
ant. Can we ask anything .more than a sense 

1^ How few coilege students nowadays study as if they were getting ready 
to teach the lesson ! 

125 



AMMI BRADFOED HYDE 

of favor of God and of daily improvement? 
I never lose sight of the object of my course, 
— preparation for life. From 4 A. M. till 
10 P. M. I am on the stretch for improve- 
ment social, intellectnal, and religious. I 
know I can be somebody, and hy the grace of 
God I will not he a cipher in the world, let 
my lot be cast where it will. I am somebody 
here. There is an aristocracy in college, not 
of wealth, but of talent; and though I wear 
six days in the week the clothes in which I 
left home, and spend no money to gain good 
will, I have found good and abundant en- 
trance into its ranks. I feel, too, that I have 
no lack of mental power. In mathematicks, 
where I had found trouble, I find I can grasp 
the most difficult reasoning with comparative 
ease. Indeed, in the class there is but one 
before me and he is a mere recitationist, 
knowing little but the narrow round he daily 
traverses. My fondness for this branch in- 
creases, but not at the expense of my love 
of languages. ... 

You will see at once that some parts of 
this letter are for your eye only, not that I 
have given anything but truth ; yet to others 
it would appear vanity and future failure 
would therefore be attended with the greater 
shame. Trusting to your discretion in this 
matter, I remain Your son, 

A. B. Hyde. 



126 



SELECTIONS FEOM DIARY 



The third letter here presented was writ- 
ten during a sojonrn in the rnral district of 
Connecticut where he taught school for some 
mionths. It shows him confronting some 
problems which had so much to do with his 
career for iif e ; and the contents of this letter 
will be of interest and value in an estimate of 
his life : 

Feb. 2d, 1845. 

My Dear Father, — Your excellent letter 
has reached me, but the reply to it has been 
delayed already beyond your patience. I am 
not, however, deficient without an excuse — 
jjerhaps a valid one. My school, as you may 
suppose, engrosses the most of my time. My 
studies occupy the effective part of the re- 
mainder. And when these have received their 
full amount of attention, I have seldom vigor 
of mind and body left enough to write even 
to the dearest. My courage this winter is 
undergoing a peculiar trial; and I made up 
my mind to inflict none of my experience on 
you until the experiment should have been 
fairly made, so that I might give you some 
light as to the probability of my success or 
failure. I am now on the last half of my 
time. I am alive. My reasoning powers are 
unimpaired. And when the last scholar at 

127 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



night becomes inaudible and invisible, and 
the school-lionse is left to ^ 'books and sbncks 
and me/' I usually succeed in establishing 
my oivn identity. 

I hardly know what to think of the busi- 
ness. Some things connected mth it are very 
pleasant, others are very unpleasant. On the 
whole, it is about like any other. . , . The 
school numbers not far from thirty. It is 
as far advanced as any district school that I 
ever knew. Some are in Latin, some in 
French and Algebra, and none who are un- 
able to get some kind of a lesson. 

I can not say what success I have had, 
as I can compare it with no former effort. 
But all my patrons appear satisfied, fully so, 
and are making proposals for another winter. 
If they are contented, why should I complain? 
I am under obligations to please them, for 
they leave nothing untried to please me. If 
to have a flaming rural reputation, to be wel- 
comed with smiles at every house, to be an 
oracle to both the old and the young, and 
to be in the good graces of every old lady 
and nearly every young one in the district 
could make a stay desirable, mine would 
surely be so. 

If I could surrender myself to forgetful- 
ness, I would be glad. But I do not know, a 
presentiment of being hereafter called to fill 
some arduous station, a sense of my need 
of qualification for such a one, childlike as 

128 



SELECTIONS FEOM DIARY 



the idea may be, keeps me from sharing, or 
at least from enjoying the ease that is offered 
me. It has become a settled habit with me 
to find my rest in labor and my weariness in 
relaxation/^ This winter I have done what 
I conld. And if the principle of the widow's 
mite may apply to intellectual as well as to 
charitable labors, I have done respectably. 
I expect on my return^^ to be even with my 
class. Some attention, too, I have paid to 
other studies. 

But the winter, whether well improved or 
not, is passing rapidly away. In about seven 
weeks I hope to be at M — . My wages will 
be very convenient then, will they not ? But 
they will melt away like snowflakes in the 
river ! I hope to make them last until May. 
I have a great many ways for money. My 
wardrobe reminds me strongly that I have no 
mother near by to look after it. I will have 
to get me a number of articles on my return 
to M — , pants, vest, etc. Perhaps you may 
wish to give me some advice about it. 

My rotary boarding-house is a matter of 
most interesting variety. I have boarded at 
Mr. Smith's, Mr. John Smith's, also at Mrs. 
Nichols's, whom you perhaps knew by her 
maiden name of Oatman, at Mr. Harger's, 
and at Mr. Horace Candee's. It is sug- 
gested for my comfort that change of pas- 

Let the young collegian of the present ponder that remark! 
16 To Wesley an. 

5 129 



AMMI BRADFOED HYDE 



ture never fails to fatten;" but in my ease 
it does. I am beyond fattening. 

The worst part of my stay is that I have 
no means of religions or literary society; or, 
if any, they are scanty. My Sabbaths are 
divided among my Episcopalian and Congre- 
gational constituents, with an occasional visit 
to the Methodists in Derby. I almost faint 
for want of some good, heart-reviving meet- 
ings. Perhaps my religions enjoyment has 
been allowed to depend too much on the favor 
of circumstances. Isolation, then, for a time, 
will awaken me to the fact. It has already 
been good for me. It has led to a searching 
of heart, prayerfully, I trust, thoroughly 
made. The question has often been revolved 
by me whether I would wholly or partially 
give myself to the Christian service. And 
at times, when I have made a rational de- 
cision, I allow the assaults of worldly pros- 
pect to shatter the bulwark of my faith. 
Shall I join the votaries of human learning 
and share the delights of their enchanting 
pathway, or unite with those whose route is 
up a rugged Calvary, whose fame is the 
sneers of men, whose glory is a cross of 
anguish? Heaven help me! I have chosen. 
. . . What could I do without the consola- 
tions of religion? Exhausted by the cares 
and perplexed by the trials of life, where else 
could I turn for strength and refreshment? 

130 



SELECTIONS FEOM DIAEY 



I need not recount the circumstances 
whicli combine to make my situation more 
than I thought I could ever bear. It is 
enough, that, soul-trying as it is, grace is 
still sufficient. The hardest of my task is 
yet to come, but I will ask only for daily 
bread. ' ' And though my bodily vigor is not 
what it was at the commencement, and my 
progress in study^^ will be but trifling, I will 
not complain; for the time is short, and, if 
I live through, it may at some future time 
be pleasant to think of the events of the 
mnter. It is possible that I shall be the 
means of some permanent good to those 
around me, and the thought of such a possi- 
bility is a strong comfort." I have heard 
of those who ^^walk the world and strew their 
path with friendships," and have often 
thought that it was my fortune to follow 
close in the footsteps of such a one. Every 
place in which I have been has furnished 
me friends, some more and some less, but all 
places to some extent. And here I have some 
whose company is a valued feast, whose sym- 
pathy revives, and whose approval strength- 
ens. . . . 

Do not expect me to stay at home or any- 
where else, to be idle or doing but little, 
after I graduate. I will sooner go a mis- 



17 Attempting to keep up with his college work during his absence from 
Middletown. 

131 



AMMI BEADFORD HYDE 

sionary to Africa. Perhaps I shall at any 
rate. ... I will write again if I ever 
get back to M — , but it is impossible for me 
to do so while here. 

Believe me as ever vonrs^ 

A. B. Hyde. 



IV 



LITEEAEY ACTIVITIES 

Feom early years Ammi Bradford Hyde was 
fond of the literary side of education. While 
in Wesleyan University he was as deeply en- 
grossed in writing and speaking as he was 
in mere class-room performance; and his lit- 
erary efforts were a distinct supplement to 
his recitation of lessons learned in text- 
books. He was shrewd enough to see that 
the literary side of his training was vitally 
essential to effective handling of himself 
among men. Would that young college stu- 
dents felt so to-day! The literary touch is 
altogether too rarely found among our young 
people who are seeking a college degree. 
Lamentable though it may be^ it is neverthe- 
less a most solemn and deplorable fact that 
commercial instincts are giving color to the 
higher education of a large section of the 
West; and the civilization of that section of 
our country will never be entirely what it 
should be, until the dollar mark ceases to 

133 



AMMI BRADFOED HYDE 



be omnipresent in the thonghts of the person 
who ventures to call attention to the fact 
that he has had college training. 

But our young friend of the forties at 
Wesleyan had a loftier ideal. Some of his 
literary endeavors of those earlier years can 
not fail to be of more than passing signifi- 
cance to the youth of to-day, when, unfor- 
tunatelyj in many colleges athletic contests 
are claiming the lion's share of attention. 
But the subject of our story did not make 
the fatal mistake of the famous athlete, Milo 
of Crotona, who, often victor at the Olympic 
and Pythian games, in his last days bewailed 
his waning physical strength and is pitied 
by Cicero in his esay on Old Age, where he 
mentions the folly of giving first thought to 
the training of the body. While our young 
collegian rejoiced in the ability to run and 
leap, he took far greater delight in mental 
gymnastics. 

It is of perennial interest to observe the 
character of early manifestations to see 
whether they were a reliable forecast of the 
achievements of succeeding years. And in 
view of the splendid literary work done by 
Ammi Bradford Hyde in the period of his 

134 



LITEEARY ACTIVITIES 

mature manhood, the reader will no donbt be 
glad to see what his yonthfnl intellect could 
produce. The following oration, written by 
him and delivered in Wesleyan University 
at the Junior Exhibition, May 7, 1845, 
shows a mind aroused to correct procedure 
of thought and noteworthily appreciative of 
effective verbiage. Few young men in our 
colleges to-day could surpass this effort. 
The title of the oration indicates a mind alert 
to the philosophy of human experience. The 
title is, ^^The Influence of Obsolete Institu- 
tions." It is as follows: 

Dissolution awaits all human structures. 
Splendid cities have flourished and fallen, 
and their ruins now strew the earth. Broken 
columns and fallen arches deface the spot 
where not long ago a stately palace pro- 
claimed the pride, or a lofty temple bore wit- 
ness to the piety, of men. The kings who 
ordered, the artists who planned, and the 
laborers who erected them have passed away. 
And the world now regards them only when, 
with curious wonder, it investigates the mon- 
uments of their skill, their splendor, and their 
toil. But when the eye rests on these scat- 
tered remains, whether they are found buried 
beneath the drifting sands of the desert, or 
shut in by the dark luxuriance of Western 

135 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



forests, the mind acknowledges their power. 
They lead it back along the course of time. 
They introduce it to the society of those who 
first intruded on the stillness of nature, who 
trod in haughty triumph along the halls of 
these prostrate edifices, and who cowered 
among the tottering monuments of their early 
glory. They tell us of the brevity of human • 
power and the fallacy of earthly splendor. 

Such are the ruins of the works of art. It 
is not so with the creations of the reason and 
the philosophy of men. They fall, it is true. 
The world is everywhere encumbered with 
their scattered fragments. Their forms are 
unknown where they once reared themselves 
in all their majesty. But there lingers 
around these fragments a living, acting spirit. 
There gleams from them a light which lends 
its aid to reveal the path which society to- 
day should travel, while they contribute their 
influence to form its present character. 
Whether they were in their nature political, 
social, or religious, if they gave mind an im- 
pulse or a modification, neither can be lost. 
The elegant fabric of Grecian society has 
long been dissolved; but the spirit of refine- 
ment by which it was marked transferred 
itself to Eome and softened her iron rigor. 
If it slumbered through the reign of darkness, 
it was first to greet the return of civilization ; 
and now the memory of Greece is cherished in 
the love of art and letters, in the laws of 

136 



LITERAEY ACTIVITIES 

taste, and in the precepts of pMlosopliy. The 
proud empire of the Romans has fallen. The 
scepter of the world has left it, and the his- 
tory which preserves the record of its splen- 
dor tells, too, of its extinction. It still lives 
in the rich inheritance it bequeathed. The 
trophies of its arms have perished; the tri- 
umphs of its generals are forgotten; but ju- 
rists now consult and obey its codes and pan- 
dects, and the consent of the world proclaims 
their value. Its laws govern, while itself has 
passed away. 

This enduring power is not confined to 
states. It is strikingly exhibited in the in- 
stitutions of society and religion. Chivalry 
has died away. Its titles are empty names. 
Its exploits are known only in the tales of 
the past. That splendid combination of cour- 
age and love, of generosity and romance, 
which was given to foster the weakness of 
reviving society, which restrained the power- 
ful and protected the timid, has gone. It 
was the morning star that beamed on the 
pathway of an emerging world. It was the 
dawn of social improvement; and if it was 
absorbed in the advancing brightness of gen- 
eral reform, it was not lost. Succeeding 
times have obeyed its principles. Its form 
and figure have disappeared, but to-day its 
spirit lives. It is interwoven with the frame- 
work of society. It lives in all that gives 
grace to humanity. Its courtesies temper the 

137 



AMMI BEADFORD HYDE 



severities of war, and embellish the enjoy ^ 
ments of peace. And where woman is ele- 
vated to the ranlv which heaven designed her 
to occnpy, where weakness is shielded against 
force and innocence against oppression, there 
is felt the living, acting power of chivalry. 

At its decline Puritanism arose. When 
one had passed to the weakness of age and 
had become a cloak for the crimes which it 
once reproved, the other nsnrped its place. 
The characters of the two were different. 
One was light, airy, and graceful. It comes 
down to ns in all the enchanting garb of fic- 
tion. Its era was the golden age of honor, 
pf gallantry, and of love. The other was 
stern, rugged, and umdelding. It was robed 
in the gloomy attire of despotic discipline. 
Its age was that of enterprise, of uncom- 
promising devotion, and of severe and rigid 
liberty. Puritanism shared the fate of chiv- 
alry. The minds of men marched on and 
left it behind them, and it lifts its imposing 
form far in the horizon of the past, to mark, 
by its growing dimness, the progress of hu- 
manity. The impress which it left on the 
world was not so transient; it is visible now 
among us. It is seen in the liberty wrested 
from monarchy in England, and in the ra- 
tional freedom of America. It is felt in the 
struggles of the Old World, and the pros- 
l^erity of the New. In a time of moral laxity 
it taught self-denial; in an age of tyrants 

138 



LITERARY ACTIVITIES 



it taught meiij in the fear of God, to govern 
themselves ; and now, where independence is 
enjoyed, we may read the honors of the in- 
stitution that nursed its feeble infancy, and 
where virtue now makes a stand against na- 
tional vice, she is cheered and stimulated by 
the example of those who dared rebuke a 
licentious court and turn back the tide of 
universal profligacy. 

The superiority of society in our day over 
all that has preceded it, is our boast and 
pride. We compare these latter days with 
the age of Augustus and Pericles, and con- 
gratulate ourselves, on the contrast. The 
world has never seen an age like ours. The 
human intellect, no longer trammeled by su- 
perstition nor limited by a blind belief in 
fatality, is soaring upward to its home. It 
is asserting its connection with the Infinite. 
It is lifting the veil from the mysteries of 
creation. It is exploring the wonders and 
solving the design of the universe. The hu- 
man soul is basking in the beams of a dis- 
pensation before which the darkness of my- 
thology and the mists of bigotry are fleeing 
away. Freedom visits the earth and sets up 
her throne on the ruins of despotism. Vast- 
ness of design and energy of performance 
are the characteristics of the day. But have 
we elevated ourselves to the position which 
we sustain? Have the labored institutions 
of other days, the productions of the toil and 

139 



AMMI BRADFOED HYDE 

wisdom of other men perished with their 
short-lived authors and conferred no lasting 
benefit on their race? It wonld be interest- 
ing to search ont the causes whose effects are 
now visible upon the common mind, and to 
inquire whence came the elements now com- 
bined to form the general character. We 
shall find them scattered through the history 
of the world, raising themselves here and 
there in the dim vista of years, confined 
neither to a particular age nor to a particu- 
lar country. The frostwork of circumstances 
has melted away, the clouds of prejudice and 
the rubbish of error have disappeared, and 
their lofty summits reflect upon us, unsullied, 
the effulgence of truth. 

And shall we say we owe nothing to them 
for our increase of light? We have culled 
from the ruins that crowd the plains of time 
all that is valuable and given it a share and 
s place in the fabric which we have erected 
for ourselves. And if we owe so much to 
the past, if generations of men have labored 
and the fruit of their toil is ours, can it be 
that we are putting forth no influence which 
shall live beyond our own time? We may 
accelerate or divert the stream of human ac- 
tion, and our effort shall be felt along its 
course as far as to the shore of eternity. 
And when our country shall have shared the 
fate of others that have gone before it, when 
unsightly relics shall mark the place of our 

140 



LITEEAEY ACTIVITIES 



Capitol, and a race of strangers occnpy the 
soil whose defenders shall be forgotten, the 
spirit of our free institutions will live on, 
triumphing over fallen pyramids and warm- 
ing the ashes to which it owed its life. Its 
home shall be humanity and the sphere of its 
action the theater of the world. 

The intrinsic merits of the foregoing 
speech are obvious and particularly worthy 
of remark as the effort of a young fellow of 
twenty; and, if in addition to the intrinsic 
merits, Cicero's definition of the good orator 
as the good man be added, the effort is doubly 
worthy of note, since the exalted morals of 
the writer are beyond question. 

But one might wonder whether the ora- 
tion was wholly his own ; whether he did not 
at least avail himself of certain legitimate 
help at the hands of schoolmates and even of 
instructors. But any doubt as to his readi- 
ness as a writer will be quickly dispelled by 
a consideration of the positive literary qual- 
ity of those letters written to his father and 
mother while he was in college. And that 
is one reason why these letters appear in 
this story. Indeed, the form, content, and 
scope of his letters are most satisfactory evi- 

141 



AMMI BRADFOED HYDE 



dence of his superior powers of thought and 
utterance. 

From an early age, about nine years, he 
wrote poetry. He wrote on a great variety 
of subjects, employing various styles of versi- 
fication, and in many ways giving proof of the 
fact that the Muse was his ready and willing 
servant. His poetic effusions were priompted 
by circumstances — ^^the result of some actual 
inspiration. He did not write, as even the 
English poet laureate may sometimes do — - 
under stress of duty to generous patron. 
The poems he composed were often printed 
in various papers and magazines ; but not till 
past eighty years of age did he allow a col- 
lection of poems to be published in book form. 
Finally, yielding to solicitation, he permitted 
some of his choicest efforts to be put into 
a small volume. The book was got out pri- 
vately in a limited number of copies to be 
used as gifts to particularly intimate friends. 
These poems are short, rarely running over 
half a dozen stanzas; but they abound in 
beautiful sentiments and choice expression. 
The subjects indicate a wide range of thought, 
as follows: ^^John Wicklif," ^^The Winter 
Sun-Gleam," ^^The Mount of Temptation,'' 

142 



LITEEAEY ACTIVITIES 



George Wasliington, His 146th Birtliday, ' ' 
^^John Euskin," '^Lncy, An Idyl of Eeal 
Life," ^^The Snowflake," ^^Pansies— Pen- 
sees — Tlionghts, " " The Afterglow, ' ' ^ ^ A 
Peak in Colorado," ^^She Was Blind from 
Birth," ^^The New Planet Eros," ^^To My 
Brother and Neighbor, Bishop Warren, on 
His Birthday," University of Denver," 
^^The Bugler of Balaklava," ^^Cazeno\da, 
1846-1906," Indian Snmmer," ^^H. A. 
Buchtel, Grovernor of Colorado, Inangnral, 
January, 1907," ''A June Diurnal," ''An 
October Noontide," ''To Our Conductor of 
Athletics (September, 1906)," "Kairos." 
Though the titles just presented are not all 
that appear in the modest volume, they indi- 
cate that the writer's range of thought was 
anything but narrow. Inasmuch as the lim- 
ited number of copies of this book of poems 
has prevented the author's numerous friends 
from having the privilege of possessing the 
book, it may not be amiss to present several 
of the poems here : 



AMMI BRADFORD HYDE 



THE MOUNT OF TEMPTATION 

O, Quarantania, wild and lone, 

No flower is blushing on thy steep, 

No veil of verdure round thee thrown, 
No springs in silvery music leap; 

All bare and dry in stony death 

As blasted with a demon's breath. 

Why do I musing linger here 

With eyes more set in tender gaze 

Than on soft Gerizzim or where 

The flocks on goodly Hermon graze, 

Or where the glowing lilies gem 

The tender green of Bethlehem? 

The dimness of the ages flies, 

The Tempter, as of old, I see, 
Wily and strong before me rise. 

Flushed with his wide, long victory, 
Fair-spoken, murderous, dark within. 
And but one conquest more to win. 

Who is to front him ? Who is He 

White-lipped with fasting, faint and worn.^ 

Is He the champion, ah me! 

By whom this day's events is borne .f^ 

O, where was ever battle-field 

Where such as these must win or yield .^^ 

144 



LITERARY ACTIVITIES 



Now all is o'er. The wan and pale. 
The swart and strong has overcome, 

Like sullen cloud upon the gale, 

The Tempter seeks his shadowy home. 

While angels wipe the Victor's brow 

And cheer with tones of comfort now. 

O, desert mountain, wild and bare, 
On thy bleak side such combat came! 

Our foe of foes was broken there, 

How beams for aye the Conqueror's name! 

From fields where war's loud trump is blown 

I turn, — Thou art my Marathon! 



KAIROS 

The Olympic Contestant, entering the foot race, 
knelt at the altar of Kairos — Opportunity — by the 
Stadium Gate: 

Once sure it comes, not surely twice. 

The race we each must run. 
Our most of effort is the price 

At which the goal is won. 

Ready at Kairos? Who is he? 

The athlete tried and trained. 
Whose early vigor, flush and free. 

Full strength and skill has gained. 

145 



AMMI BRADFOED HYDE 



Long was his discipline, and stem, 

To struggle and abstain; 
Sore wearisome, the art to learn 

To breathe, to poise, to strain. 

Yet felt he fresh resolve upspring 

With cheer for every day. 
In air he heard glad voices sing. 

Saw bright- winged hopes at play. 

Here he is now! The gate swings wide; 

The Stadium opens free 
Already in his glow of pride 

He feels the victory. 

For Kairos ready .^^ Not for vain 
High love thy gifts has given. 

Fail.^ No! The brave shall always gain; 
'T is noble to have striven! 

What if Life be Olympic drill 
And Death its Kairos shrine? 

We bow, and silent, passing, join 
An unseen Stadium line. 



LITEEAEY ACTIVITIES 



THE BUGLER OF BALAKLAVA 

O Bugler brave whose call rang clear 
Upon the crisp autumnal air 
With Cardigan, while on the rear 
Dashed the Six Hundred charging there. 
The smoke, the crash, the stain are gone, 
That bugle fifty years unblown. 

"Move!" "Trot!" Charge!" swept the col- 
umn on. 

Where thirty thousand, waiting, stood. 
While spoke the guns in threatening tone. 

And shrieked all horror's frantic brood. 
"Retire!" rang out! The fray was o'er; 
How many heard the call no more! 

The winter snows, the spring's soft rain. 
The summer's verdure heal the ground. 

The war- vale wears no scar or stain; 
The songs of birds are heard around; 

The bugler, far away, still dreams 

Of storm and smoke and war's red gleams. 

Then to his lips his bugle lays : 

"Move!" "Trot!" Charge!" ring upon the 
air! 

But where are they of fargone days.f^ 

No Light Brigade sweeps forward there. 
Do horse and man, a ghostly train, 
Rush viewless down the vale again? 

147 



AMMI BRADFORD HYDE 



Hero of years, at front no more. 
With Cardigan to sound his call; 

The Light Brigade has gone before, 
Thy breath sings requiem for all. 

Rest, soldier born, thy laurels won, 

A warrior's service bravely done! 

ON THE iEGEAN 

The sea-murmur is with ^Eschylus, laughter; 
with Sophocles, weeping. 

Art laughing, Merry Sea.^ 
Athena's dawn has reddened in the East 
And day is blooming over land and sky, 
Joy, hope, and love stir freshly in our hearts. 

Laugh on, O gladdening Sea! 

We, too, will laugh with thee. 

Art weeping. Mournful Sea? 
Light has gone out behind Arcadia's hills 
And darkness shrouds old millions in their graves, 
But all their pangs chafe in our living hearts. 

Weep on, O saddening Sea! 

We, too, will weep with thee. 



LITERARY ACTIVITIES 



A JUNE DIURNAL 

Dawn — and the stars fade out. 
The glistening dew smiles welcome to the beam 
That wakes the world with gilding, dancing gleam, 

To toil and sing and shout. 

Noon — and the midway sun 
Puts forth his strength to aid the sparkling shower. 
Bringing to perfectness corn, fruit, and flower 

Ere summer's course be run. 

Evening — how wide the calm! 
The weary world sinks gently to its rest; 
The hours move softly on the sky's blue crest; 

The cool air breathes of balm. 

Midnight — what thousand eyes 
Watch o'er the sleepers in their slumber deep, 
And silent joy in all their movings keep 

Until red morning rise! 

O cycle swung in air. 
Central in boundless realms of deep-hushed light. 
Harking the call of changeful day and night, 

What living charm is there! 



149 



AMMI BRADFOED HYDE 



AN OCTOBER NOON-TIDE 

I sit half sinking in the yellow wave 

Dripped from the walnut bending o'er my head. 
With many a tint the woodland floor is brave, 

And whispers merry to the rambler's tread. 

See the far hillside! How the autumnal beam 
Has clothed all foliage for a revel gay; 

Each bush aflame in every warmth of gleam! 
How sweet this early perfume of decay! 

October! Now in large, majestic round 

The changeful year has marched along the land! 
Life stirred, suns blazed and darkening tempests 
frowned 

In order simple, fascinating, grand. 

And this is Consummation. What Spring gives 
Of rich, new life, the summer's suns and rains, 

September's ripening mid the fruits and sheaves 
Have wrought and gone, and this, their work, 
remains. 



Full well I know soon comes a chilling breath, 
And all these bright things crumble into mold. 

Then over all the brown and silent death 

Spreads Winter's shrouding mantle, white and 
cold. 

150 



LITEEAEY ACTIVITIES 

Yet, couched upon this gold and amber, who 
Should dreary think on bitter days to come? 

Now is the sober joy of Autumn true. 

Let the calm heart be here at rest, at home. 

TO OUR CONDUCTOR OF ATHLETICS* 
(September, 1906) 

IN CONNECTION WITH ATHLETICS IN THE UNIVER- 
SITY OF DENVER 

Olympic Artist! Welcome here! 

Called to a noble, earnest charge, 
We greet you with a glowing cheer. 

Counting your errand fair and large. 

Not movement, attitude, alone. 

Not strength, fine bearing, manly form. 

Not prowess where exploit is shown 

Where strife grows strenuous and warm. 

Better than limbs to service trained 
Are Courage, Truth, and Honor high, 

Are hearts in loyalty sustained 
Scorning to speak or act a lie. 

Be our Bayard! Like him endowed. 
The bloom and pride of chivalry 

Whose arm dismayed the faithless crowd. 
Whose heart ennobled rivalry. 



*John P. Koehler. 

151 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



Then from your pattern and your voice, 
Your atmosphere of manliness, 

Our men aspiring, shall rejoice 
To rival you in every grace. 

And more; each in his time shall long 
For the world's help to lend an arm. 

With muscle trained, elastic, strong, 

With honor's, truth's, compassion's charm. 



One of the latest poems written came out 
in the PiUshiirgJi Christian Advocate of June 
3, 1909. It is as follows : 

LIFE'S EVENING MIRAGE 

The morn of June is on. The sovereign sun 

Touches and warms the upper skyward air; 
Night's lingering breath, though all its hours are 
done. 

Cools the low reaches of our atmosphere. 

Magic of beauty! Mark the bending rays 
Lift a bright world beyond the horizon line ! 

Its glow and shade entrance the wondering gaze, 
While near and far in wide perspective join. 

Such spell of radiance works the westering sun 

Before the inward eye of memory; 
Its living beams o'er rising visions run. 

And fresh the long-trod landscape glorify. 

152 



LITEEAEY ACTIVITIES 



The far-off lighter breath of early years 
Catches the rose and saffron of the morn; 

Midlife care-laden, even showered with tears, 
Tinges of rainbow-weaving now adorn. 

All at one view! O Mirage passing strange! 

Where is the rudeness? Was there never gloom? 
Far spreads the scene; then with a gentle change 

All softly melts. Night's quenching dews are 
come. 

The first literary contribution to a journal 
was a critique on Dante^ v^hich was published 
in the year 1848, and displayed remarkable 
penetration for one so young. It was a rather 
venturesome thing, perhaps, to attempt a sub- 
ject that has always been worthy of the steel 
of a well- trained knight of the pen; but the 
risk did not prove to have been unwarranted. 
This critique Chancellor Henry A. Buchtel, 
of the University of Denver, once read to 
the students in their chapel service and de- 
clared that but few young men of the same 
age could eqnal it in keen power of analysis 
and adroitness of statement. And the com- 
pliment was not inappropriate. 

In the year 1875 he wrote a commentary 
on the Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes for 

153 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



Whedon's Commentary. For over forty 
years, never missing a week, he prepared 
Sunday school notes for the Pittsburgh Chris- 
tian Advocate. The last notes appeared in 
the issue of June seventeenth, 1909 ; and the 
editor spoke of his extended services in the 
following manner : 

In this issue of the Advocate the final 
installment of notes on the Sunday school 
lessons by the Eev. Ammi B. Hyde, S. T, D., 
of Denver University, is printed. . . . 
For two thousand consecutive weeks he has 
furnished his lucid and suggestive comments 
upon the lessons chosen by the International 
Committee. The uniform and superior qual- 
ity of the notes is well known to the thou- 
sands of the Advocate readers. They have 
furnished insight and illustration to both 
teachers and students of the Word. Into 
them the Doctor has put the wealth of his 
scholarship, the freshness of his thought, and 
the warmth of a Christian heart. 

Appended to the same editorial is a fare- 
well word from Doctor Hyde. If his words 
embody one feature that is of paramount sig- 
nificance, it is his sweet-spiritedness at the 
moment of discontinuance of the work of 
more than twoscore years. He says: 

154 



LTTEEARY ACTIVITIES 



The conclusion of a service which has 
long appealed to one's thought and feeling 
is personally serious. . . . The service 
has covered no small portion of one's mortal 
life. Its regularity and its subject have been 
congenial, and it has been animated by a sin- 
cere desire for its usefulness to those who 
might accept it. Its patronizing editors have 
been generous in every form of courtesy, and 
its veteran accountant has been a brother be- 
loved. Those who have read have been pa- 
tient and sympatheticc. One leaves with 
tenderness so goodly a company. But, as a 
war brings out its own heroes, so each gener- 
ation brings out its own workers. None who 
v/hen this service began were standing around 
the Advocate seem now visible. Others in 
their glorious prime are doing its work well 
and worthily. May our Master cheer their 
labor! And may the successor^^ to these 
columns be able to divert from the Sacred 
Word the stream that makes glad the city 
of God," the rills that shall enliven the 
schools of his region, and on him may the 
approving lips at last pronounce, '^Well 
done ! ' ' 

For fifty years Doctor Hyde was a con- 
tributor to the Methodist Review, and he 
wrote also for various other journals. 



18 It SO happens that the successor was once a student of Doctor Hyde in 
Allegheny College — Camden M. Cobern, now professor in that institution. 

155 



AMMI BEADFORD HYDE 



For many years he produced essays on a 
variety of topics of general interest. These 
were historical, biographical, and philosoph- 
ical; bnt everywhere the philosophical bent 
of his mind is in evidence. The essays were 
written for different magazines and papers, 
and in 1885 a volume of essays, six in num- 
ber, was published. It was dedicated to 
^^Mira Smith Hyde, seeing that to her pure 
taste and patient criticism and to her sjm- 
pathetic appreciation is chiefly due any merit 
this book may have.'' Something of the 
author's habits of mind is shown in the ^^In- 
troductory Note." He observes: 

The reason which this modest volume 
offers for its existence is direct and intelligi- 
ble. Above the horizon of history — which is 
never a plane like that of ocean or prairie — 
arise, as the peaks in our mountain walls of 
Colorado, eminent personages, seen from 
afar. These personages, men and women, 
were not trees or stones ; they had parentage, 
friendships, and surroundings. They illus- 
trate our human nature; and an inquiry into 
their character, career, and influence is a re- 
freshing and a remunerative exercise. . . . 

It is good also for the mind to make 
foray into the domain of abstract ideas. 
Sentiments in the form of proverbs and 

156 



LITEEAEY ACTIVITIES 



axioms are afloat (and long years have been 
so) wliicli it is well to challenge. . . . 
Thus the Essays are the recreations of a 
busy life, after a fashion congenial with the 
writer's calling. Should they for a passing 
hour bring cheerful company and animating 
thoughts to other minds — especially, should 
they awaken something better than they 
bring, they will have done their errand. 

In this choice little book of 159 pages the 
author treats the following subjects: 

Knowledge and Power," ^^A Thousand 
Years Ago," Philosophy of the Unuttered," 
^'Gustavus Adolphus," ^^Miss Burney," and 
^^Gambetta." These essays are virile in 
thought, clever in phrase — a thesaurus of 
suggestion. 

But the most ambitious book undertaken 
during his life was the Story of Meth- 
odism." It contains about five hundred 
good-sized pages. It was written when the 
author was sixty-five years of age (1890). 
At this time in life he was magnificently 
fitted to write such an account. Of course, 
the mere matter of composition hardly held 
his attention at all. He was a rapid and mas- 
terful writer. His English was chaste and 

157 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



of broad capacity; and, as for the facts and 
geographical territory that must be covered, 
the author had for two and a half score years 
been preparing himself. His natural in- 
clination to canvass thoroughly any subject 
that claimed his attention had made him 
familiar with spirit and detail of that pow- 
erful religious sect which to-day claims vast 
attention and is engrossed with plans for the 
salvation of the entire human family. 

So the writer did not need to pause in 
the midst of his writing to consume time and 
strength in collecting material. To be sure, 
he might have gone much more extensively 
into the minutiae of his subject; but his pur- 
pose was to write a story, not a history. 
It was to entertain and inspire, rather than 
to provide cyclopaedic information. 

In his prefatory statement the author re- 
marks : 

A story is a little different from a his- 
tory. The latter is properly a full, labored, 
and careful presentation of a given line of 
facts in their relations of cause and effect, 
of time, place, and order. A story has less 
of dignity, perhaps less of precision. It 
purposes to entertain while it instructs; to 

158 



LITERARY ACTIVITIES 



give not all that is knowable, but that which 
most men would care to know. History is 
for study. A story is for easy reading and 
telling ; a story ought not to be tedious with 
detail. It must leave many things unsaid, 
and many other things that seem unsaid must 
melt and mingle with the current of the tale. 

The writer's special inspiration for his 
imdertaking was the opportunity to talk with 
those who had known Methodism's founder, 
John Wesley, in England. He therefore set 
about his work splendidly equipped ; and the 
book he produced has been astonishingly pop- 
ular. A hundred thousand copies have been 
sold, and it has had deep and lasting and 
wholesome influence in America and England. 
No question that it has increased the stand- 
ing of Methodism in the minds of men in 
general, and has decidedly added to the in- 
telligent appreciation of Methodists them- 
selves for their own Church and intensified 
their loyalty therefor. In fact, it may 
worthily be accounted one of the most im- 
portant books produced in connection with 
the Methodist Church; and future writers 
along the same line will find it a substantial 
source of information. 

159 



AMMI BRADFOED HYDE 



This monumental work was composed in 
the months of Jnly and August, after Doctor 
Hyde had finished a year of exacting work 
teaching, writing, preaching, and lecturing. 
When asked how he found such a feat physic- 
ally possible, he exclaimed, ^^0, I was just 
full of physical vigor and felt like throwing 
it away ! ' ' And that at the age of sixty-five ! 
What an incentive to lofty attainment is such 
an old age, and how it should fire the young 
with consuming desire to emulate it ! 

His widespread interests are evidenced by 
his membership in educational and patriotic 
organizations. He belongs to the American 
Oriental Society, the American Philosophical 
Society, the National Geographical Society 
(of which he was one of the founders). Sons 
cf the American Eevolution, Phi Beta Kappa 
Society, Colorado Schoolmasters' Club, and 
the Denver Philosophical Society. For a 
number of years he has been honored by 
being placed first on the annual program of 
the last named organization, and he always 
presents a study at once distinctive and fresh 
and thought-provoking. 

Ammi Bradford Hyde's wide knowledge, 
inspirational teaching, and brilliant literary 

160 



LITERARY ACTIVITIES 



work earned for Mm tlie degrees of Master 
of Arts (Wesleyan University), Doctor of 
Sacred Theology (Syracuse University), and 
Doctor of Literature (University of Denver). 

As a closing word in connection with this 
sketch of his literary career, nothing could 
he more appropriate than that truly wonder- 
ful and eminently truthful tribute paid 
Doctor Hyde at the Commencement of the 
University of Denver, in May, 1909, when he 
received at the hands of the university the 
degree of Doctor of Literature. In present- 
ing him to the chancellor for the degree, 
Bishop William F. McDowell said: 

^^I present for the degree of Doctor of 
Literature Ammi Bradford Hyde, graduate 
of old Wesleyan in the days of Fisk and Olin, 
worthy companion of a long line of scholars, 
a contemporary of the great of all ages, a 
citizen of all centuries; teacher of literature, 
interpreter of literature, maker of literature ; 
living definition of the historic Christian 
scholar; lover and teacher of youth; loyal 
and obedient disciple of the truth, firm and 
faithful believer in Christ, and true friend 
of God — worthy of all honor from this uni- 
versity which he has long and nobly served. ' ' 
6 161 



AMMI BEADFORD HYDE 



To this Chancellor Buchtel, always an ar- 
dent admirer of Doctor Hyde, made beauti- 
ful response, saying, among other things: 
'^You yourself, Doctor Hyde, are a classic. 
. . . May you return late to the sky!" 
The probabilities are that, in giving this de- 
gree, the University of Denver never hon- 
ored herself more and never bestowed honor 
upon a worthier subject. The ceremony of 
conferring this degree was a most touching 
and elevating incident, fit climax of an im- 
pressive and memorable occasion. 



V 



WIT AND HUMOR 

Though a man of solidity of thougM, a real 
philosopher, he is blessed with a rich vein 
of wit and humor. He is a master of the 
difficult feat of commingling the two in such 
proportions as to avoid at once rabidness in 
the former and dullness in the latter. His 
wit is not bald, his humor not insipid. In 
this connection he possesses some qualities 
that are deserving of emphasis. 

In the first place, he is distinctly original 
in many of his deliverances. Aside from 
other considerations, this is largely due to 
his constant attempt to grow in thought and 
variety of expression. One might well be- 
lieve that he has been a devotee of Tacitus 
or Victor Hugo. His mind can not be con- 
tent with trite or hackneyed utterance. He 
does some thinking on his own account; and 
even the members of his own household were 
kept alert for a novel way of putting a truth. 

163 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



They came to expect it of him, and they were 
seldom left long in suspense. His mind does 
not creep. Bnt the temptation to employ the 
unusual does not proceed to the point of ab- 
surdity. His fun is always of high quality 
and has its own distinctive hue and refresh- 
ing charm. 

Again, his jests never go wide of the 
mark — ^nay, rather, they rarely fail to hit the 
bulPs-eye. And one important reason why 
his sallies are perfectly pat is that he sees 
the end from the beginning and has a mind 
intent upon the proper application of all de- 
tails. And so the laugh that greets his hu- 
morous efforts is sincere and hearty — ^not 
tinged with hint of the partial awkwardness 
of the joke. 

Unlike many who indulge in funny re- 
marks, he does not allow his love for facetious 
utterance to lead him toward sterility of 
thought, where fun becomes inanity. At 
bottom, nothing but vigorous, far-reaching 
thought satisfies him. The cheap and tire- 
some jest of the street has for him no attrac- 
tion. If he can not surpass the common fun, 
he prefers to remain sober of utterance. 

Furthermore, there is a rich and subtle 

164 



WIT AND HUMOE 

flavor about his jocose remarks. Here, per- 
haps, is the cro^^ing virtue of his fnn- 
making. The philosophy of snccessful and 
enduring fnn entails a distinct and peculiar 
delicacy. This quality rendered Bob Bur- 
dette so long the idol of the American people. 
But our Doctor Hyde could have readily du- 
plicated Burdette 's freshest and brightest ef- 
forts. He, too, could have entertained vast 
audiences as a humorous lecturer of fine 
fiber. He could have been a mighty teacher 
in this field; for his fun would have sur- 
prised and entranced and would certainly 
have struck at the basic principles of life 
and conduct. 

And, finally, his jocoseness is perennial. 
But he does not render himself wearisome to 
others. He has a thorough sense of the fit- 
ness of things. He rarely if ever overdoes 
his fun. He has commendable balance in this 
field of his mental acti^dties as well as in 
the weightier matters. And so it happens 
that, in the domain of wit and humor, he is 
well rounded and sane and wholesome, and 
he never lets his tendency to humor degrade 
his scholastic dignity or lower his self-respect 
or cause him to make culpable attacks upon 

165 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



his fellows. His wit and huinor are a strong 
asset, but are kept dnly subordinated to 
the loftier side of a profoundly awakened 
mentality. But some examples will best 
show the character of his wit and humor, 
though it goes without saying that the fun 
when transferred to cold type lacks some- 
thing that comes by way of Doctor Hyde's 
inimitable look and peculiar attitude. Only 
those who know him intimately will see, de- 
spite the printed page, the man in action; 
and all such will find it by no means a dif- 
ficult matter to see the word coming, not so 
much from the printed page, as from the 
sensitive lips of Doctor Hyde himself. Let 
memory lend but trifling aid and old friends 
will readily see the Doctor Hyde of former 
days once more scintillating to the astonish- 
ment and delight of a'ssembled acquaintances. 
Students who years and years ago had the 
satisfaction of being in his classes will again 
feel the exhilaration of the class room, its 
entire atmosphere permeated by Doctor 
Hyde's own rich personality. 

One day in his eighty-fifth year he was 
out walking. As he moved along briskly, 
with every indication of vigor, he happened 

166 



WIT AND HUMOE 



to meet Ms friend the Rev. John Davis. The 
latter paused as they approached each other 
and remarked, ^^I hope you 're well to-day, 
Doctor!" Doctor Hj^-de halted and, with a 
profound bow, but an utterly impassive 
countenance, remarked, ^^Your humble serv- 
ant is as a grasshopper in your presence!" 
Without further ado he resumed his walk, 
leaving his friend in a paroxysm of poorly 
restrained laughter. 

On a certain occasion he was at the post- 
office to get his mail. When it was handed 
to him he glanced rapidly over it and, seeing 
a letter addressed ^^Rev. A. B. Hide," he 
turned with great gravity to Professor Van 
Pelt, who was standing by, and remarked, 
^*Here is a letter for you. That name 
doesn't belong to me!" 

At another time he went to Sunday morn- 
ing preaching service in Grace Church, Den- 
ver, and with becoming reverence took a seat, 
carefully placing his excellent hat upon the 
bench by his side. Presently there entered 
the same pew a good woman who failed to 
see the Doctor's hat. Consequently she 
played havoc with it. Instantly she was cov- 
ered with confusion and stammered forth her 

167 



AMMI BRADFOED HYDE 



humiliation and regrets; but without the 
sh'ghtest trace of irritation, the Doctor 
suavely remarked, ^^When I entered this 
pew that hat was felt, but now it is sat in, ' ' 
A happy faculty that of displacing anger 
with humor! And the lady was duly com- 
forted and restored to her wonted ease. 

Subsequently, one who heard of the inci- 
dent in Grace Church, urged on by an irre- 
pressible curiosity, said to Dr. Hyde, ^'Now, 
did you really say that?'' To which he re- 
joined, ^^I 'm like the chrysanthe — mum!'' 

He had power to make light of serious 
things when they pertained to himself. 
-After a short illness with erysipelas, in his 
eighty-second year, he appeared in chapel 
and was warmly applauded, for there had 
been general anxiety as to the possible out- 
come of his sickness. The students clamored 
for a word, and the Doctor spoke about as 
follows : ^ ^ I thank you kindly for your pleas- 
ant greeting. I had some difficulty, I con- 
fess, in my recent illness. I suppose I was 
leally pretty sick. I actually felt quite on 
the b — (bum was at that time a slang syno- 
nym for being in dire straits) ragged edge !'' 

Those who were students in his classes 

168 



WIT AND HUMOR 

had abundant opportunity to discover tlie en- 
tire gamut of Ms fun-making proclivities. 
He could meet any situation with a delicious 
bit of humor or a tinge of sarcasm. One 
day the boys, previous to going into the 
Greek class, agreed to cross their legs in 
the same manner and change position, cross- 
mg and recrossing at the same instant. Like 
well-drilled soldiers they proceeded to carry 
out their concocted scheme. After half the 
hour had passed, the professor, noting that 
there was something preconcerted, ventured 
with appreciative emphasis : ' ' Gentlemen, 
y ou seem to be un-knees-y today ! ' ' And the 
jokers confessed themselves bested by their 
resourceful teacher. 

He had imlimited capacity for prodding 
derelictions on the part of students, but his 
method precluded permanent dislike on the 
part of the victim. Once he had among his 
students a young chap of persistent and ex- 
asperating carelessness. He never had his 
lesson prepared, and he exhibited surprising 
fertility in the matter of excuses for his un- 
preparedness. One day he solemnly an- 
nounced that he had had the misfortune to 
lose his book, whereupon the ready professor 

169 



AMMI BRADFOED HYDE 

impassively queried, '^Mr. Blank, you don't 
suppose it could have been translated, do 
your' 

At another time it became incumbent upon 
him to go to the rescue of a sensitive lady 
teacher, one of his co-laborers. She besought 
him to rebuke a frisky fellow who annoyed 
her by chewing gum in her classes. After 
duly impressing upon the young man the 
glaring impropriety of such conduct in class, 
Doctor Hyde said to him: ''3 oh eschewed"^ 
evil. Now, will you promise me upon your 
word of honor that you will eschew gum as 
Job eschewed evil?'' The penitent student, 
looking at the severe face that concealed an 
inward amusement, humbly agreed so to do. 

His alertness to student habits is shown 
in refreshing style by the following incident : 
A manly fellow, now in middle life and one 
of Doctor Hyde's staunchest friends and 
heartiest admirers, one day, with typical 
student abandon, remarked to a young lady 
as they were about to step inside the Greek 
room, ^^0, I never look at my Greek lesson 
till I start from home !" Apparently the re- 
mark reached only the ear of the young lady, 
for whom alone it was intended. Time 

170 



WIT ANTD HUMOR 

I)assed, and at the end of the term the young 
man discovered, to his chagrin and even 
mortification, that a grade of seventy or 
thereabouts (just enough to pass him) had 
been sent into the dean's office. Despite the 
fact that he knew he had done indifferently, 
he was a bit nettled at the low grade, and 
so had the hardihood to say to the professor: 

Doctor Hyde, I notice that you gave me only 
seventy for last term's work. Didn't I de- 
serve a better grade than that?" And the 
vigilant teacher turned a penetrating eye 
upon the remonstrating questioner and said, 
with significant intonation and well simulated 
asperity, ^^Well, my brave man, how much 
do you think a fellow deserves who never 
looks at his Greek lesson till he starts from 
home?" And the boy was nonplussed and 
silent, and recalled the familiar saying. 

Walls have ears!" But the Doctor's shot 
went true, and the pupil later demonstrated 
his ability to learn Greek. 

Facetije Miscellaite^ 

Let attention be called to a number of 
brief and spicy observations of varied sort, 
elicited by one phase and another of class- 

171 



AMMI BRADFOED HYDE 



room experience. These remarks were jotted 
down by a young lady on the margin of her 
Greek book, as they were made by the in- 
structor. Their reliability is, therefore, not 
open to question: 

Characterizations of certain facts about 
the Greek language: ^^Kind of a rag-bag — 
that second aorist." 

^^Did you ever try to pull a cat backward 
on the carpet? Everything works against 
you; but try it the other way and it 's all 
right. So with the verb: work right with 
it" 

Class dismissed on April 14, 1899. Ap- 
plause at announcement that the class would 
not be detained for recitation. The Doctor 
said: There is only one thing pleasanter 
than to recite in Greek; and that is not to 
recite ! ' ' 

Concerning tense of a verb: ^^It must 
be imperfect, ' ' said Mamselle M — ' ' Verj^, ' ' 
remarked Doctor Hyde. ^^Her perplexity is 
in tense!" (Didn't know tense of verb.) 

' ' Your Greek is like , our green peas — got 
a chill!" 

^'He swears as deacons do" (regarding 
172 



WIT AND HUMOE 



Dr. Howe, of the University of Denver, whose 
strongest oath used to be ^'kai gar!''). 

^^That is one of the charms of Greek; 
it 's like the rising of the sun — always the 
same, yet always new." 

Greek on the blackboard like immortal 
gleams of trnth across the dark bottomless." 

Hints regarding inattention on the part 
of students: ^^You notice Mamselle T — . I 
thought it was the window rattling." (A 
thrust at the young lady for constant whis- 
pering to her neighbor.) 

^^Now, here 's Mamselle who has a very 
good pair of ears and didn't hear a thing." 

To Mamselle C — e, who whispers inces- 
santly: Mamselle keeps the caldron boil- 
ing. ' ^ 

^^I 'm afraid you were dreaming, floating 
in the air, sailing on a. cloud." 

^^Now, Mamselle, you 've got your head on 
your shoulders, though you aren't using it." 

^^I am talking with this estimable person 
whom I addressed. ' ' 

Generally suggestive: ^^Mild advice, like 
milk-and-water poultice — soft — prepares the 
way for something harder." 

To a student unable to proceed with 

173 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



translation: ^^Time goes on even if you 
don't.'' 

To the class on a day when the recitation 
was particularly prosaic: ^^As brilliant to- 
day as lead buttons on a gray coat. ' ' 

^^Let the bucket down into the well of 
memory — the old oaken bucket." 

^^If a man lost his left hand, then his right 
Jiand would be left." 

^^Who stole my maple sugar? Some one 
has carried it off syrup-titiously. " 

With reference to a difficult lesson : ^ ^ You 
did n 't put it on the fire early enough : when 
anything is tough the wise housekeeper puts 
it on early." 

Assigning a lesson: ^^Take down as far 
as your emotions and feelings will allow." 

On May 26, 1899, Doctor Hyde had a very 
bad cold, and he remarked: '^I 'm getting 
ready to sing double bass at the concert to- 
night. Did you ever hear singing that re- 
quired more effort on the part of the listener 
than of the performer?" 

With reference to a recitation period in 
the afternoon: ^^My venerable colleagues, 
Professor Eussell and the rest, skim off the 

174 



WIT AND HUMOR 



cream. By this time we have the blue 
liquid. ^ ' 

^^Don't make a face at me, Mamselle; 
that 's as bad a face as I ever saw on you.'' 

' ' Think of this, Mamselle, because you 're 
a philosopher: What 's the difference be- 
tween eating up and eating down?" 

To a student who is irregular in attend- 
ance: ^^Mr. E — is a bird of passage: now 
you see him, now you don't." 

^^This lesson is too easy — eat it with a 
spoon." 

To a student who is rather stupid : ' ' Now, 
make the best intellectual effort you are ca- 
pable of." 

To a young lady who is eating chalk: 
Mamselle, tell us out of your rosy lips." 
To Miss Mason, who is reciting with ques- 
tionable accuracy : ^ ' That 's veiy Masonic ! ' ' 
To a young man with a mop of football 
hair: ^^Now, think inside that rich head of 
hair of yours ! " 

To a class where recitation is proceeding 
slowly: ^^This blessed silence! I could hear 
something drop — ^if it made noise enough!" 
Quite a ditference between a diary and 
175 



AMMI BRADFORD HYDE 



a dairy : one may be quite dry, the other quite 
watered ! ' ' 

^'Y'our book, Mamselle, has some spinal 
complaint" (the book had a broken back). 

^^What was it that caused all our eyes to 
be directed at Mamselle and our ears here- 
ward? It was a little translation when we 
changed places, as if Mamselle suddenly be- 
came bald and I became handsome/^ 

Before I was four years old I got such 
r.. whipping I made the walls ring with my 
interjections 

^'Fighting is a form of association!" 
Mamselle, you 're running light to-day, 
like Mr. Pritchard's express wagon when 
there 's no trunk in it; but to-morrow you '11 
run like his wagon when there 's a trunk 
in it, and you won't rattle so!" 

^^Your engagements didn't allow learn- 
ing a little thing like that, Mr. B— ?" 

'^Of course it 's an augment! How could 
you doubt it, young skeptic?" 

^^Look at it quite steadily, as if you 'd 
bum a hole in it!" 

There 's something in your elocution 
that indicates that there 's something absurd 
in my question, Mr. B — ." 

176 



VI 



AMMI BEADFORD HYDE, THE MAN 

Ammi Beadfokd Hyde is even yet a man of 
great physical vigor. While of only average 
size, lie possesses tlie energy and endnrance 
of many a man of more stalwart build. He 
has been very free from sickness. This is 
due largely to temperate habits. His thor- 
ough self-control manifests itself on his 
bodily side as well as on his mental side. He 
is most judicious in the quantity and variety 
of foods he eats. He well understands the 
importance of regularity and moderation; 
and so he has been notably immune from 
many ailments that occasionally annoy even 
the most sturdy and long-lived. In his 
eighty-fifth year he remarked that he was a 
stranger to rheumatism. 

His five senses remained almost as good 
as new until he was eighty-three. Then, 
much to his regret, his eyesight began to fail 
him; and, though it has greatly interfered 

177 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



with his activities^ yet he is by nature and 
cultivation so optimistic that his closest as- 
sociates are hardly aware that he keenly feels 
the embarrassment. But he was blessed with 
truly wonderful eyes; for up to the age of 
eighty-three he was ceaselessly busy with his 
eyes and they served him magnificently. 

But failure of sight interferes but little 
with his thoughts. Doubtless it even intensi- 
fies the richness of his meditations; and, 
furthermore, his mental processes are so 
well ordered, so precise and logical, that they 
readily take in and retain what is read to 
him. 

Aside from dimmed eyesight, one marvels 
at his virility. He walks erect and with quick 
step and climbs long flights of stairs unaided 
and with confidence. It seems little less than 
miraculous that, in addition to his heavy work 
in the class room, and that for seventy years, 
he should have found time for a multitude of 
other labors. He wrote and preached and 
lectured extensively. 

His is a democratic spirit of the noblest 
sort. Elsewhere attention has been directed 
to his aristocratic lineage ; but his immediate 
family were in humble circumstances. How- 

178 



THE MAN 



ever, they had lofty aspiration. They had 
the rare combinatioii of aristocracy of char- 
acter that regards the mind as the measure 
of the man, and democracy of manners that 
never seeks to erect a barrier between one's 
self and another. Thus in Ammi Bradford 
Hyde genninely democratic spirit is splen- 
didly manifest. He is the friend of the young 
and the old. He does not scorn the rich be- 
cause of his riches ; he loves the poor because 
he is a man. He is known to all as father and 
friend. 

He loves to be helpful. Once, when he 
himself really needed assistance in order to 
insure his physical safety, he saw a poor 
woman laden with bundles, starting from the 
car to her humble home a half mile away. 
He promptly insisted that he be permitted to 
accompany her and relieve her of her bur- 
dens ; and, though she expressed anxiety lest 
he be giving himself unwarranted trouble, he 
cheerily pushed aside the suggestion and 
helped her even to her own door. Then, with 
a bow and a pleasant ^'Good evening," he 
disappeared, his identity unknown to the ob- 
ject of his thoughtful attentions. He knows 
what it is to go about doing good. 

179 



AMMI BRADFOED HYDE 



Among Ms recent services was the teach- 
ing of a Bible class at the Children's Home, 
Ihree-qnarters of a mile from his residence 
in University Park, Colorado. Eegnlarly 
each Sunday afternoon he walked to the 
Home and back again, and gave all the wealth 
of his love to the unfortunate waifs who 
fell to his lot for instruction. Who can tell 
what seed he has sown in their young hearts 
and what it means to them for time and for 
eternity? 

Small boys never make him the subject 
of ridicule. No one ever thinks of him as 
unapproachable or as desirous of seeking to 
make those less learned feel their inferior- 
ity. He always regards with marked tol- 
erance the opinions of others; but such tol- 
erance is never charged to barrenness of 
views or lack of courage in defense of his 
own convictions. He bears with all men and 
accords them full opportunity to set forth 
their ideas. 

He is exceptionally free from censori- 
ousness — a fault so common particularly to 
the aged, who find it difficult to view with 
patience the impulsiveness of the young and 
the imperfections of the untrained. The 

180 



THE MAN 



writer wishes to emphasize the gratitude 
which he feels for the fraternal attittide ob- 
served by Doctor Hyde. Old enough to be 
the grandfather, he has always acted the 
brother and comrade. His solicitous inquiry 
after the writer's opinions, even when those 
opinions must seem untenable or at best 
imperfect, proclaims most emphatically his 
capacity for putting himself on the level of 
another. His advice is always given in such 
delicate and indirect manner as hardly to 
seem advice. It is always absolutely devoid 
of offense. And yet how few aged people 
discover the secret of effective dealing with 
those who are younger, and who may possess 
the common and often warranted aversion to 
the spirit of carping criticism that not in- 
frequently dominates the patriarch. 

Doctor Hyde has the power to debate with 
frankness and force and yet carry away no 
acrimony. He values truth and can give it 
generous estimate wherever he discovers it. 
Nowhere are the thorough manliness and ab- 
solute self-control of the man more strikingly 
illustrated than in Faculty meetings of the 
University of Denver, which he faithfully at- 
tends even to-day. Backed by the voluminous 

181 



AMMI BRADFORD HYDE 

experience of extended pedagogic service and 
fortified with discriminating insight into hu- 
man nature, he never shows irritation or con- 
tempt or disgust at any suggestion, however 
defective or unfortunate. For the most part 
he sits in dignified silence, an absorbed lis- 
tener, a man always welcome. When he does 
speak, it is to say something that is worth 
while. No one ever wishes that he would stay 
away because he is a thorn in the flesh. He 
is as staunch a friend of the young and in- 
experienced teacher as of the older teacher 
of rare and reliable judgment. And so all 
love him with unrestrained and sincere and 
hearty affection. 

Another noteworthy characteristic is his 
self-poise. Who that knows him ever saw 
him overwhelmed by the unexpected? Nor 
is it mere bodily control. His wits are 
quick and perfectly regulated. On the oc- 
casion of his eighty-fourth birthday he and 
Lis daughter were dining with friends, when 
a crowd of neighbors, admirers, and acquaint- 
ances invaded the home where the dinner was 
in progress. The visit was a total surprise 
to him, and, almost before he was aware of 
what was going on, he was surrounded and 

182 



THE MAN 



a speech of congratulatioii was being made 
felicitating Mm on Ms ripe oM age and Ms 
honorable career. To this speech he most 
happily responded. His utterances were 
modest, brief, pertinent. He thinks and 
speaks so constantly in classic phrase that he 
never needs to make special effort to speak 
pleasingly and even charmingly. He has a 
reverence for words and selects them most 
carefully. He is always ready. He always 
forecasts the possibility and therefore ac- 
quits himself becomingly. 

He is a marvel in conversation. He has 
tirelessly cultivated the noble art. In college 
he belonged to a society that had regular 
meetings to practice conversation. The 
knowledge he possesses is extensive and 
varied. Nor is it merely bookish. He loves 
men. He has intelligent appreciation of 
human nature, and it has been ever a teacher 
to instruct and inspire him. He has never got 
out of touch with the lowly; and so he can 
talk with such delightful simplicity that the 
day laborer welcomes no other man more 
gladly than him. He always manages, with- 
out belittling himself, to talk about those 
themes that are uppermost in the thought of 

183 



AMMI BEADFORD HYDE 



the man into whose company he has fallen. 
His choice of phrase is thoroughly in keep- 
ing with the degree of his hearer 's enlighten- 
ment. He has that noble and exalted taste 
that induces one to use such language as will 
render the listener comfortable and at the 
same time charm him and stir up his better 
feelings and his worthier impulses. 

He converses readily and to almost any 
extent whatever. He can both suit his hear- 
er's moods and at the same time shift them 
at will. With the hand of the accomplished 
musician he sweeps the strings of the hear- 
er's soul with Orphic effect. 

In a crowd he moves with enviable ease 
from one to another, never at a loss for some 
humorous or comforting observation. Often 
has the writer seen his amazing capability for 
engaging the attention of others in a well- 
filled room, where all too frequently even the 
best feel a painful paucity of ideas and words, 
or lessen their dignity by indulging in cheap 
remark. Indeed, one's real culture and kind- 
liness are often most sorely tested under such 
circumstances; but seldom has our friend 
failed to come out of the occasion with the 
genuine admiration of those present; and 

184 



THE MAN 



that, too, with the utmost regard for the 
exactions of manly modesty. 

He has never songht to be the target for 
the crowd's gaze. Eather, he has made every 
effort to keep attention from centering npon 
him, and has thus shown real breadth of mind 
and loftiness of spirit. He can carry on a 
conversation single-handed if necessary; but 
he possess'es great tact and skill in calling 
out the response that is always essential to 
mutual entertainment. He takes perhaps 
deeper satisf action in getting the other party 
to talk than in talking himself ; and particu- 
larly so, if the other seems timid or halting 
of speech or uneasy of manner. Indeed, the 
educative value of his conversation must have 
strongly impressed all who have known him 
with any degree of intimacy. 

But few are masters of the art of profit- 
able and entertaining conversation. At one 
time in the life of Benjamin Franklin, he 
and an acquaintance were detained for some 
days, cut otf from communication with the 
outside world, during a severe mid-winter 
blizzard in Pennsylvania; and the friend in 
later narrating his experience declared that 
he had seldom known such a fireside com- 

185 



AMMI BEADFOED HYDE 



panion as Franklin. In like manner, those 
who know Ammi Bradford Hyde will doubt- 
less agree that temporary isolation from the 
rest of the world wonld prove a choice privi- 
lege, if the time conld be occupied in conver- 
sation with such a consummate master of the 
excellent art of lofty conversation. 

Nor should his courtly manners be passed 
unmentioned. He is a perfect Lord Chester- 
field. He is always ready to step aside for 
another. He is willing to wait till others 
have uttered their opinions. He knows 
something of what it is to let the occasion 
seek the man and not the man the occasion. 
He has the fine and unaffected manners of 
the thorough gentleman. His politeness 
never engenders in others a feeling of un- 
easiness or loathing. But this does not mean 
that he is altogether reposeful and easy 
in bearing, for he is not. He often seems 
stiff and physically conscious, notably so in 
his public deliverances; but he has the far 
more desirable ease— that of mastery of the 
intellectual side of the situation. And it 
surely is more desirable to be able to say 
something with certainty and effectiveness 
and composure of mind than to be an adept 

186 



THE MAN 



in the polished manners of the dancing mas- 
ter, coupled with emptiness of thought. 

And so his courtliness of bearing is a 
courtliness based upon capacity for utterance 
pregnant with thought and a lively regard for 
the feelings of others. A pupil of Doctor 
Hyde once did him the honor to say of him 
that, after an acquaintance in and out of the 
class room extending over a period of twenty 
years, she could not recall a single instance 
where he had spoken rudely or in any wise 
disrespectfully to anybody or of anybody in 
her presence. And this testimony embodies 
the heart and soul of his courtesy. 

Nothing, however, is of greater conse- 
quence in his life than his overwhelming de- 
sire to be useful. It shows itself in his cor- 
respondence with his family while he was 
pursuing his college course. The reader need 
but revert to the letters that appear earlier 
in this story. Ever and anon he indicates 
that his dominating thought is Ich dien (I 
serve). 

His life is not a story of seeking advance- 
ment. He has not appeared anxious about 
earning a large salary, though such desire 
may be perfectly legitimate. He has always 

187 



AMMI BRADFORD HYDE 

labored for exceedingly modest remnneration 
and could doubtless have done much better; 
but his prime thought has always been to 
give his best effort to the educational insti- 
tution where he was engaged. With him the 
discovery of truth and the rescue of less 
trained minds from the bonds of ignorance 
and the gall of iniquity have been the direct- 
ing and animating consideration. He has al- 
ways had the open mind, he has always been 
accessible, he has always given himself freely 
to those with whom his lot was cast. He has 
always entertained a vivid conception of 
Christ's large, lesson to the race— SERVICE. 
He has never made honor-seeking first. What 
honor he has received has come to him in the 
course of his service, and so has come un- 
sullied and shining with its proper luster. 

In him the Thirteenth Chapter of First 
Corinthians finds a fit abiding place. Though 
he speaks ^^with the tongue of men and of 
angels," he is not sounding brass or tinkling 
cjTinbal; for he has charity. Endowed with 
seer-like vision and richly blessed with faith 
that has brought results, he is no zero through 
lack of charity. His is the spirit that would 
give his goods to feed tihe poor, and he has 

188 



THE MAN 



charity. He knows what it is to suffer long 
and be kind : he is bnt little acquainted with 
envy : he vaunts not himself, is not puffed up, 
does not behave himself unseemly, seeks not 
his own, is not easily provoked, does not har- 
bor evil thoughts. He rejoices not in iniquity, 
but rather in the truth. He has decided ca- 
pacity for bearing, believing, enduring. 

And those most familiarly acquainted 
with him will allow this all but impossible 
tribute to pass unchallenged. He stands erect 
before his own household and before his God. 
Diogenes might well look with lighted lantern 
at mid-day for this sort of man! Well may 
be applied to his character, when he is gone, 
that beautiful tribute that the Roman writer 
Tacitus paid to his father-in-law, Agricola : 

If there is an abode for the spirits of the 
departed; if, as the philosophers believe, 
great souls are not blotted out with the body, 
rest in peace ; and call us and thy home away 
from womanish longing and effeminate lam- 
entation to the contemplation of thy virtues, 
which can not fittingly be mourned nor be- 
wailed. Let us cherish thee rather with im- 
perishable praises; and, if nature grants us 
the power so to do, let us imitate thy illus- 
trious example. That is genuine honor, that 

189 



AMMI BRADFOED HYDE 



is fitting devotion to manifest to our loved 
ones. And I urge thy friends so to cherish 
thy memory that they may cleave rather to 
the form and figure of thy soul than to the 
form and figure of thy body — not that I think 
that we ought not to regard the likeness 
made of marble or bronze ; but, as the human 
countenance is unenduring and perishable, 
so the likeness thereof is unenduring and 
perishable. But the fashion of the soul is 
lasting — which thou canst not shadow forth 
and declare through foreign substances and 
by sculptor's skill, but through thy own char- 
acter. 

And all these qualities of body and mind 
so unite as to produce in Ammi Bradford 
Hyde well-rounded Christian character. His 
is a workable Christianity, prompting kindly 
utterances about his fellow-man and enabling 
him to remain in unbroken calm. Daily he 
lives as if it were his last. Daily he walks 
with God. Death has lost all terrors for him. 
Once he said to the writer: Do n't be too 
anxious about a larger house for a while. 
One fine day I shall journey out to Fair- 
mount,^ and then you can take my house. ' ' 

When his eighty-fourth birthday anni- 



1 A beautiful cemetery in Denver, Colorado. 

190 



THE MAN 



ver&ary came round, lie was the recipient of 
nearly a hundred letters of congratulation. 
These letters came from every section of 
America and from many notable people. 
The letters are rich in tributes that are most 
appropriate in an attempted analysis of 
Ammi Bradford Hyde's character. The 
reader will doubtless welcome some of these 
letters : 

Drew Theological Seminary, 
Madison, New Jersey. 
Dear Dr. Hyde, — I have just learned that 
to-morrow is your birthday, and I beg to add 
my congratulations and felicitations to the 
many which you will receive. I have known 
•of you for many years, and have had for you 
the highest esteem and affection. Bishop 
Andrews frequently spoke to me of you and 
of the notable work which you have been 
doing these many years. Your praise is lit- 
erally in all lands. The Church honors you, 
thousands bless you and love you. May Grod 
give you yet many other years ! 

Yours affectionately, 

EzEA Squiee Tipple. 



191 



AMMI BEADFORD HYDE 



103 Eliot St., Milton, Mass. 

March 9, 1909. 
Amini Bradford Hyde, S. T. D. 

My dear brother, — I congratulate you on 
reaching your 84th birthday. I have pleas- 
ant memories of you in Wesleyan University 
in the years 1844-1845. We were bound to- 
gether by a threefold bond — the same Public 
Society, the same Grreek-letter Fraternity, 
and the same Church. We have survived 
many noble companions of those days. I 
reached my 84th birthday on the 5th of last 
October. I hope you may enjoy the year as 
much as I do. I find joy unspeakable in 
Christ Jesus. 

Yours with the Abiding Paraclete, 

Daniel Steele. 

Central Christian Advocate^ 
Kansas City, Mo. 
Dear Dr. Hyde, — I have sat at your feet 
for so many years ; I have been noting your 
work in the Pittsburgh Advocate and Meth- 
odist Review for so long; I have been forced 
to see that perennial youth and keen wit and 
ripe wisdom, and exalted, because self -for- 
getful character — f orced to see them because 
there was nothing else to be seen; that it is 
a pleasure that stirs my deepest life to write 
you for your birthday. I thank you for your 
influence on myself, and for that long and 
majestic influence you have had on the 

192 



THE MAN 



Churcli, whose most eminent leaders have 
been your associates and friends. God bless 
you ! Claudius B. Spencee. 

March 12, 1909. 

The Chamberlin Observatory 
of the University of Denver. 

March 12, 1909. 
Dear Dr. Hyde, — For some twenty-five 
years we have walked together in brotherly 
association, striving to help those who have 
come under our care to prepare for life's 
battle. In influencing them toward higher 
ideals you have been privileged to speak 
words of uplift in private to hundreds of 
them. In the public services of our chapel 
exercises you have not failed to urge us all 
to lay hold on the noblest things in this life, 
and you have always presented Jesus Christ 
as the heart's Supreme Master. But, be- 
sides all this, you have lived among us the 
Christ-life, with patience and fidelity per- 
forming your allotted tasks, giving as con- 
scientious attention to the humble ones as to 
those of larger moment. Your willingness of 
mind and sweetness of spirit have made your 
companionship delightful to us all. May the 
good Father in Heaven graciously grant you 
many more birthdays, each made bright by 
the shining of the Sun of Eighteousness ! 
Affectionately your friend, 

Hekbeet a. Howe. 
193 



AMMI BRADFORD HYDE 



What joy must such tributes bring to a 
man in his latter days! Ammi Bradford 
Hyde will live on and on and on; and, as 
force once exerted in the physical world is 
never lost, so his work will be reflected in the 
lives of thousands yet to be. 



THE MAN 



The following poem is fresh from the 
hand and head and he-art of Dr. Hyde, and 
was called out by the approach of the 13th of 
March, 1912, his eighty-seventh birthday: 

MORNING ALL THE WAY. 

I sit beneath the westering sun 

While lengthening shadows eastward fall; 
I trace the path my life has run, 

And clear-eyed memory scans it all. 

The star that led from primal night 
That far-oflf day when I was born, 

Has moved perennial, calm and bright. 
To herald a continuous morn. 

Fresh-breathing dews and perfumes rise. 
Dawn peeps o 'er dawn, still coming on, 

Stars fade out from the warming skies 
Before an ever coming sun. 

The Plans Divine new scope unfold; 

Man, waking, new achievement dares; 
Light, backward beaming, gilds the Old. 

Unwithering, Nature's beauty fares. 

Westward I turn and gaze. No Night] 
Dawn far and faint, with rosy ray 

Betokens still the growing light 
That leads the wide. Eternal Day. 



195 



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